A document by Saad Bhamla. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Susan Kegel. Click on the document to view its contents.

Hi Reddit! Kevin is a surface scientist with a Ph.D. in chemistry from Johns Hopkins and an expert beer homebrewer. Craig is a science writer and editor for Chemical & Engineering News with a background in inorganic chemistry who brews kombucha and hard cider. After seeing some fake helium beer videos online, Kevin and Craig got into a discussion about whether it would be possible to do it for real. Their calculations suggested it was feasible, so they gave it a shot. You can read about the results, and get the recipe, at http://cenm.ag/heliumbeer We’ll be back at 12pm ET to answer your questions! Edit - We are here to answer your questions! KW & CB Edit - We are wrapping up. Thanks for all the good questions. We might be back on later to answer more. -KW & CB

Hello reddit! I’m Shelly Jo Kraft, an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University. My research focuses on the biological and behavioral genetics of stuttering. I also work on studies that investigate neuro-anatomical and functional features of people who stutter, auditory feedback mechanisms of speech control, and new genetic analysis techniques for modeling epigenetic complexity. Clinically, I am interested in the relationship between cognition, temperament, and stuttering severity. Stuttering is a developmental speech disorder that affects 1% of the adult population, and 5-6% of the child population world-wide. To date, the genes responsible for the disorder have yet to be conclusively identified in the general population. Only a small number of studies have been conducted on the genetic susceptibility of this disorder. I am leading a new study, to discover more about the genes and biological mechanisms that increase risk of stuttering. To identify the these genes, we are working to collect as many saliva samples as possible from people around the world who stutter. I can answer any questions you might have about developmental stuttering, how we know it is genetic, and about participating in the study. If you want to participate, the first step is to read and fill out these forms about the study. Next, we will schedule a short phone call interview with me or another qualified speech and language pathologist. After that, we will mail you a saliva collection kit and a very brief questionnaire. Our understanding of the cause of stuttering will potentially provide a foundation for new treatment approaches. Please join me in this international effort! Thank you so much for your excellent questions! I really appreciated your enthusiasm for this exciting area of research, and your support for our study. I would also like to thank everyone who shared a personal anecdote of their experience as a person who stutters. I will try to come back later tonight to check in and answer any additional questions that come in. Thanks again!! https://waynestate.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_022IaHz6j23fGex .

A document by Josh Guild. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Javier Canteros. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Dorit Hockman. Click on the document to view its contents.

Hi reddit! I am a very interdisciplinary researcher working with Virtual Characters and social robots. I like to model human behaviour as recognition of gestures and faces, and simulating natural reactions. My dream is to have a virtual coach that could help me in many situations (personal assistant). I also work for creating 3D virtual worlds, where we can see ancient decors and interact with ancient people. I am also interested in the medical field. I work with medical doctors and patients for simulating articulations. All my research can be seen on www.miralab.ch. For the Social robot Nadine, I was always interested in automaton. They were automatic machines that followed a sequence of predefined actions. With Nadine, the social robot, we can now create more autonomy and adaptation through the interaction. A lot of people have reacted to the fact that Nadine looks like a real person. Some of them like it, some others find it scary. For me, she looks quite natural. I would be happy to give more information or answer questions to anyone interested. I’ll be back at 6 pm EST (3 pm PST, 11 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything!

A document by PLOSScienceWednesday . Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by NASASunEarth . Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Ocean_Explorers . Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

I’ve recently signed the Peer Reviewers’ Openness Initiative (PRO). Here are some thoughts on why, and more generally on how we as reviewers can have a positive impact on science.

A document by Do Tromp. Click on the document to view its contents.

Modern biology was initially established by Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859 and fully implemented by the Neo-Darwinian synthesis of natural selection with genetics that solidified in the middle twentieth century. I will argue that this ‘paradigm’ is based upon fundamental metaphysical assumptions that render formally-insoluble some of the most important theoretical problems of biology. These problems include the origin of life, the major transitions of evolution, the origins of sexual reproduction and of species, and the basic mechanism behind ‘group selection’. The fundamental deficit of the current metaphysics of biology is that it lacks a unified and coordinated teleology (direction, purpose, goals). I advocate a new teleological and metaphysical basis for biology that is minimally based on a ‘deist’ conception of reality: i.e. that everything is governed by a unified principle of purpose, order and meaning. Such a teleology suggests a definition of biology around the concept of development – that is the growth, differentiation, coordination and interactions of entities; unfolding through time through the lifespan and across generations. The local and specific implementation of teleology is suggested to be accomplished by a hierarchy of cognitive organizing entities that are located outwith biological systems. These putative organizing entities work on biological entities primarily through building-in purposiveness during development. A deistic system directed by organizing entities is, of course, not a ‘biological’ theory; but then, neither is natural selection a biological theory: both are metaphysical frameworks for the science of biology.

The Work Forum on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities met in Brussels on 29 April 2015. The Forum brought together representatives of those responsible for implementing and monitoring the implementation of the UN Disability Convention, both at European and national level; these are focal points, coordination mechanisms and monitoring mechanisms. Civil society and disabled people’s organizations also actively participate in the Work Forum. The Work Forum aimed at ensuring that the disability treaty is fully implemented. It allowed to share experiences on its practical implementation and monitoring and to promote solutions to common challenges. It is organized by the European Commission and meets every year since 2010.  The implementation of the UN Convention is a shared task: both the European Commission and the vast majority of its Member States are parties to the disability rights treaty and they implement it within their respective competences. Within the frame of the Forum, a roundtable was organized with the theme: “Improving synergies between the EU and the national level in the implementation of the UN Convention”. Discussants included  the author, Lucian Agafitei from Eurostat and  Roberta Crialesi from the National Statistical Authority of Italy (Istat). The following text summarizes the author’s remarks and contributions to this discussion, highlights challenges in data collection on disability and advocates for a more active role of civil society in policy surveillance and monitoring.

A document by Ernesto Priego. Click on the document to view its contents.

Hi Reddit! I am Denis Wirtz of Johns Hopkins University, where I wear two hats: Vice Provost for Research and T.H. Smoot Professor in the schools of engineering and medicine. I also direct the Johns Hopkins Physical Sciences-Oncology Center and co-direct the Cancer Nanotechnology Training Center, both funded by the National Cancer Institute, and serve as associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology. As a faculty member, my lab conducts research in cancer: specifically, we are trying to determine the physical and biological underpinnings of metastatic disease, by far the primary cause of death in cancer patients. For example, my group was the first to establish how a 3-dimensional environment (think a 3D matrix) fundamentally affects the way cancer cells migrate, providing us with much more biologically and medically-relevant information than 2D studies (think Petri dishes) routinely used in the lab. Subsequent studies of the tumor microenvironment in simplified systems have increased our understanding of how cancer cells (we focus on pancreatic, breast, and ovarian cancer) migrate, morph, and are modulated by mechanical forces during metastasis. Our research has led me to re-evaluate what makes cancer lethal, often drug-resistant, and prone to recurrence after tumor removal. In the future, I am proposing a paradigm shift on how to diagnose tumors and develop new drugs, complementing the more mainstream genetic approaches. This is pertinent to US investments (biotech, big pharma, and federal agencies) in cancer treatments. In my other role as VP for Research, I work with my divisional colleagues to oversee all research at Johns Hopkins University, the largest recipient of federal funding in the US. In that capacity, I direct the Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships, the President’s Frontier Award, research development, interdivisional research awards programs, improvements in research infrastructure, compliance and policies, etc. I have been particularly eager to help junior faculty (due to the current funding environment) and to promote collaborative, multidisciplinary research. I’m excited to speak with you about all things cancer and research! I will begin answering questions at 1 pm ET (10 am PT, 6 pm UTC). Ask me anything! Links: My lab: http://wirtzlab.johnshopkins.edu/ VPR Profile: http://web.jhu.edu/administration/provost/bios/wirtz Faculty Profile: http://engineering.jhu.edu/chembe/faculty/denis-wirtz/ Publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UJP_JHEAAAAJ&hl=en EDIT: I am signing off now. Thank you everyone for all your great questions. I look forward to doing this again.

Hi Reddit, we’re a team of plasma physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics that has 2 branches in Garching (near Munich) and Greifswald (in northern Germany). We’ve recently launched our fusion experiment Wendelstein 7-X in Greifswald after several years of construction and are excited about its ongoing first operation phase. In the first week of February, we created our first hydrogen plasma and had Angela Merkel press our big red button. We’ve noticed a lot of interest on reddit about fusion in general and our experiment following the news, so here we are to discuss anything and everything plasma and fusion related! Here’s a nice article with a cool video that gives an overview of our experiment. And here is the ceremonial first hydrogen plasma that also includes a layman’s presentation to fusion and our experiment as well as a view from the control room. Answering your questions today will be: Prof Thomas Sunn Pedersen - head of stellarator edge and divertor physics (ts, will drop by a bit later) Michael Drevlak - scientist in the stellarator theory department (md) Ralf Kleiber - scientist in the stellarator theory department (rk) Joaquim Loizu - postdoc in stallarator theory (jl) Gabe Plunk - postdoc in stallarator theory (gp) Josefine Proll - postdoc in stellarator theory (jp) (so many stellarator theorists!) Adrian von Stechow - postdoc in laboratory astrophyics (avs) Felix Warmer (fw) We will be going live at 13:00 UTC (8 am EST, 5 am PST) and will stay online for a few hours, we’ve got pizza in the experiment control room and are ready for your questions. EDIT 12:29 UTC: We’re slowly amassing snacks and scientists in the control room, stay tuned! http://i.imgur.com/2eP7sfL.jpg EDIT 13:00 UTC: alright, we’ll start answering questions now! EDIT 14:00 UTC: Wendelstein cookies! http://i.imgur.com/2WupcuX.jpg EDIT 15:45 UTC: Alright, we’re starting to thin out over here, time to pack up! Thanks for all the questions, it’s been a lot of work but also good fun!

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Henry Rzepa. Click on the document to view its contents.

Cobalt Chromium alloy L605 is an underlying biomaterial for most new generation drug eluting stents (DES) and bare metal stents (BMS). Suboptimal biocompatibility of stents clinically manifest as thrombosis and restenosis.  We optimized a plasma-activated coating (PAC) technology to modify alloy L605 material surface (PAC-L605), for the first time, for enhanced biocompatibility. This study details in vitro characterization to identify and optimize the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of the modified material surface PAC-L605.  Surface hydrophilicity characterized post-modification with water contact angle and plasma kinetics, showed improved hydrophilicity for PAC-L605. Surface chemistry of PAC-L605 vs. L605, quantified with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), showed comparatively higher weight percent of carbon and nitrogen on PAC surfaces. The microscale, isotropic surface roughness of PAC-L605, was computed with NanoMap white light interferometry (WLI).  Surface stiffness computed via nanoindentation at minimum compression load 0.19 mN - increasing to maximum load 50 mN, showed similar stiffness for PAC-L605 and L605 at higher load. Nanoindentation results confirmed robust adhesion of PAC to L605, and unique non-delaminating character of PAC under compression. Furthermore, surface modification at PAC-L605 interface was visualized via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Improvements of surface character for implantable cardiovascular materials could be achieved by plasma-activated coating (PAC).  Optimal surface modifications may trigger desirable biological responses in vitro and in vivo.