Unfold

Nearly half of all arm amputees choose not to use their prosthesis, despite improvements in technology. Prosthetics can be too difficult to operate, unintuitive, and don’t allow amputees to sense pressure or temperature. At UC Davis, engineers, neuroscientists and surgeons are collaborating to solve this problem. In this episode of Unfold, we look at how the combination of surgery and machine learning is making life easier for amputees.  Jonathon Schofield, assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, College of Engineering  Wilsaan Joiner, neuroscientist and associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences Andrew Li, assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, UC Davis Health  Clifford Pereira, associate professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, UC Davis Health  Laduan Smedley, certified prosthetist-orthotist and biomedical engineer, UC Davis Health Fehran Maher, certified prosthetist-orthotist,

About 1,000 people live in Knights Landing, California, a rural agricultural area in Yolo County. Because of its small size, the community lacks most services, including doctors and veterinarians - except on one Sunday every month. In this episode of Unfold, learn about the Knights Landing One Health Center, where veterinarians, physicians and their students team up to help some of the most vulnerable and underserved animals and people in the county.  In this episode: Kristin Jankowski, faculty director, Knights Landing One Health Clinic and access-to-care chief at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Susan Adams, associate professor, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Health Erik Olstad, assistant professor, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Tiaira Washington, nursing student, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Health Sydney Rasmussen, nursing student, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Health Izzy Hack, veterinary student, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

Dogs 10 years and older have a 50% chance of dying from cancer. They also develop the same types of cancers that humans do because their immune system is closely related to ours. Now human oncologists are studying cancer in canines in the hopes of benefiting both animals and humans. In this episode of Unfold, you’ll learn how UC Davis veterinarians and physicians are collaborating to help human cancer patients and their furry best friends.  In this episode: Robert Canter, surgical oncologist with UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center  Michael Kent, radiation oncologist and director of the UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health, School of Veterinary Medicine  Danae Unti, owner of Boone, dog who completed a cancer clinical trial

Spina bifida is the most common cause of lifelong childhood paralysis in the United States; approximately four children are born with this spinal defect every day. Standard care usually involves surgery, but it still leaves more than half of children unable to walk. But a combination of surgery and stem cell treatment may offer hope to children. In this episode of Unfold, we examine the world’s first human clinical trial using stem cells before birth to treat the most serious form of the disease.  In this episode: Diana Farmer, pediatric surgeon and chair of surgery at UC Davis Health Maya Evans, medical director of the Shriners Spina Bifida program and associate professor in the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UC Davis Michelle Johnson, mother of baby enrolled in spina bifida clinical trial  Jeff Maginnis, father of baby enrolled in spina bifida clinical trial

Spina bifida is the most common cause of lifelong childhood paralysis in the United States; approximately four children are born with this spinal defect every day. Standard care usually involves surgery, but it still leaves more than half of children unable to walk. Dogs are also sometimes born with spina bifida and most are euthanized at birth. But a combination of surgery and stem cell treatment may offer hope to both children and dogs. In the first of two episodes of Unfold, we examine the first clinical trial to treat bulldogs with spina bifida.  In this episode: Beverly Sturges, professor emeritus, neurosurgeon at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine  Aijun Wang, biomedical engineer with UC Davis School of Medicine Diana Farmer, pediatric surgeon and chair of surgery at UC Davis Health Katie Teykaerts, owner of Myrtle, a dog with spina bifida enrolled in a clinical trial

Season 4 of Unfold explores the most cutting-edge technologies and treatments that advance the health of both people and animals. Hosts Amy Quinton and Marianne Russ Sharp unfold the story of a courageous couple going through the first human clinical trial that uses surgery and stem cells to treat their developing baby’s spina bifida. You’ll hear how veterinarians and physicians are working together to fight cancer. You’ll learn why amputees often abandon their high-tech prosthetic devices and how surgeons and engineers are working together to solve that problem. You’ll hear lots of remarkable and hopeful stories about health in Season 4 of Unfold.

Just when you thought Unfold was done for the season, we decided to bug you with one last episode. UC Davis boasts one of the largest insect collections in North America, so how could we not take you on a tour? The Bohart Museum of Entomology holds more than 7 million specimens, from the beautiful to the downright terrifying. Its entomologists have even helped homicide investigations, thanks to the bug scrapings left behind. You’ll hear about beautiful butterflies, jewel beetles, murder hornets and cuckoo wasps — as well as why we’re calling this episode “Cockroaches for Dessert.” In this episode:  Lynn Kimsey, professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and director of Bohart Museum of Entomology

Scholars who write about or analyze poetry read out loud usually do so in a subjective and impressionistic way. But UC Davis experts have empirically analyzed the complexities of these vocal performances, based on pitch patterns and speed, volume, pauses, repetition and other characteristics. Now researchers are analyzing the performances of 101 African American women poets. In this episode of Unfold, we discuss why they embarked on the project and what they’ve discovered.   In this episode:  Marit MacArthur, lecturer with the UC Davis University Writing Program and faculty affiliate with the Performance Studies Graduate Group Howard Rambsy, professor of literature, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 

In this episode of Unfold, we mix comic book superhero action and science. No better pairing, since many of the heroes and villains in comics started out as scientists or are connected to scientists. The things they create and the materials they use can tell us a lot about the real world too — everything from physics to engineering. We’ll talk with Ricardo Castro, who teaches engineering students to think outside the box and to contemplate the unlikely, but not always impossible, real-world applications of materials science based on the powers of superheroes. In this episode:  Ricardo Castro, associate dean of research and graduate studies, UC Davis Department of Materials Science and Engineering  Gary S. May, UC Davis chancellor

In this episode of Unfold, you’ll hear about Chonk, a pink, baby-faced axolotl who has become a bit of a superstar on Twitter. This fully aquatic salamander is helping developmental biologists understand neural crest cells. These cells help form our face, skin color and peripheral nervous system. Discovering more about these cells can help researchers understand congenital disorders and certain types of cancer. In this episode:  Crystal Rogers, assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Cell Biology at the School of Veterinary Medicine

Nine thousand years ago, a woman was buried in the Andean mountains of Peru next to tools normally associated with big-game hunting. Before you think she was just a badass, UC Davis researchers found that many females in the early Americas were big-game hunters and we shouldn’t be so quick to project our own gender stereotypes and current cultural values on ancient societies. In this episode of Unfold, we dig a little deeper to learn more about this archaeological discovery.  In this episode:  Randy Haas, archaeologist and assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Anthropology  Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, distinguished research professor emeritus, UC Davis Department of Anthropology Glendon Parker, adjunct associate professor, UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology Kim Senklip Harvey, indigenous theorist and cultural evolutionist with the Tsilhqot’in and Syilx nations

California boasts hundreds of caves, many of them hidden in the Sierra Nevada foothills. These caves hold much more than beautiful icicle-like stalactites and stalagmites. Trapped inside the stalagmites are tiny droplets of fossilized precipitation from climates long ago. In “Nature Tells Its Story Part 2” of Unfold, UC Davis researchers discuss how these water droplets provide a “climate archive” that may help us predict future shifts in rain, snow and drought.    In this episode:  ​Isabel Montañez, distinguished professor, UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Barbara Wortham, doctoral student, UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

A fish can’t talk, but its eyes and ears can. Scientists have discovered that each layer of a fish’s lens reveals a different part of its life history, including what it’s eaten throughout its life. While you’ve probably never heard of fish otoliths, these ear bones tell us not only a fish’s age, but what rivers it has traveled. Understanding this could help wildlife managers know what habitats to protect to help imperiled species. In “Nature Tells Its Story Part 1,” Unfold looks at the eyes and ears of fish.      In this episode:  Miranda Bell Tilcock, assistant specialist researcher, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences  Carson Jeffres, senior researcher and fish biologist, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences

We discuss a macabre trend from the 1700s in Germany in this special Halloween episode of Unfold. To avoid eternal damnation for the sin of committing suicide, a number of people began committing child murder so they could be forgiven by a priest before being executed. In this Unfold episode, we look at how imagined child murders can create a culture of actual killings. Warning: this subject matter might not be suitable for all audiences. In this episode:  Kathy Stuart, associate professor, UC Davis Department of History

Earworm, brainworm, whatever word you choose, it’s that song that gets stuck in your head. Research shows that more than 90% of us experience earworms. UC Davis researchers have found that they may play an important role in helping us form memories, not just for the song, but for life events. In this episode of Unfold, we examine music, memory and what earworms can teach us about how the brain works.  In this episode: Petr Janata professor, UC Davis Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain  Ben Kubit, postdoctoral researcher, UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain 

Coming Sept. 28, Unfold brings you stories of awe, wonder and discovery as we explore how UC Davis researchers are driven by curiosity. Curiosity can lead to some of the greatest discoveries, like why songs get stuck in your head or what real-world engineering concepts you can learn from comic book superheroes. This season, we examine an archaeological discovery that raises new questions about the sexual division of labor in early hunter-gatherer societies. UC Davis researchers reveal what they found by peeling back the layers of a fish’s eye and by studying cute, pink, baby-faced axolotls. We have lots of surprising and curious stories to tell this season — even a spooky, dark and murderous one, just in time for Halloween.

Unfold travels to Kenya, where climate change is threatening a way of life for pastoralists. Climate change is driving families deeper into poverty. When drought hits, men travel for weeks in search of water and greener pastures for their livestock herds. The women and children are left behind with no stable source of food or income. UC Davis agricultural economists are researching the pairing of two intervention programs, including a type of climate insurance policy, to keep these vulnerable populations from falling so deep into poverty that they have no way to recover. In this episode: Michael Carter, professor of agricultural and resource economics, and director of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Markets, Risk and Resilience at UC Davis, with research in Kenya funded by USAID.Tom Lenaruti, Project Coordinator, BOMA ProjectNathan Jenson, economist at the International Livestock Research Institute

In California, 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation. Emissions from this sector will make it difficult to meet the state’s 2030 climate goals. There is a myriad of solutions: electric vehicles, public transportation, ride share, e-scooters and more. But people’s behaviors and habits as well as bad land-use planning make this one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize. In this episode of Unfold, we’ll look at how we can transition to low-carbon transportation.In this episode:Giovanni Circella, Director of 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program, Institute of Transportation Studies at UC DavisLew Fulton, Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program Director, Institute of Transportation Studies at UC DavisDan Sperling, founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies and California Air Resources Board Member

A quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from heating and electricity. In this episode of Unfold, we talk with Alissa Kendall, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering about our energy use. We’ll discuss renewable energy and other decarbonizing technologies and the importance of life-cycle analysis when discussing climate change solutions.In this episode:Alissa Kendall, professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 

Oceans have always done us a favor, absorbing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But now rising greenhouse gases are warming the ocean and changing its chemistry. All of this is putting marine species and ecosystems at risk, threatening food security and the livelihoods of people along its shores. In this episode of Unfold, we’ll take a deep dive into the ocean to examine the effects of climate change. In this episode:Priya Shukla, Ph.D. student at Bodega Marine Laboratory, Department of Environmental Science and PolicyTessa Hill, professor and oceanographer, Bodega Marine Laboratory.