Podcast
Art of Academia
Hosted by Madan Mohan & Komal Gupta · EN
A weekly podcast hosted by a post-doc (Komal Gupta) and a PhD student (Madan Mohan) from the National University of Singapore, featuring interviews with leading scientists. We talk about our experiences as researchers, what excites us, how we navigate challenges, and more. There is also a ton of laughing, personal stories, and random trivia. So tune in for a fun and extensive tour of life in academia. www.artofacademia.com
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Journal Club: The Simplest Way to Lengthen Telomeres?
Sep 2800:37:22Tap to summarizeLengthening telomeres with a simple supplement sounds almost too good to be true. Yet, two recent papers suggest that supplying cells with thymidine, a basic DNA building block, is enough to do just that. Join us as we explore the unexpected discovery, why it's a big deal for telomere biology, and the big question that remains: how does it actually work?(00:00) Intro(07:20) Why do we even need telomeres(14:30) The approach: CRISPR screen for telomere regulators(16:30) The core finding: More thymidine, longer telomeres(21:40) What makes these papers cool pt 1(25:00) The missing piece: What's the mechanism?(29:50) What makes these papers cool pt 2(33:30) OutroThe papers:1. Mannherz, W., Agarwal, S. Thymidine nucleotide metabolism controls human telomere length. Nat Genet 55, 568–580 (2023).2. Mannherz, W., Crompton, A., Lampl, N. et al. Metabolic constraint of human telomere length by nucleotide salvage efficiency. Nat Commun 16, 3000 (2025).
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Most cited papers of the 21st Century
Aug 1700:40:47Tap to summarizeWe discuss the news feature from Nature covering the most cited papers of the 21st Century(00:00) Intro (grant writing, going to AACR)(11:45) Most cited papers of the 21st century (overview)(15:20) 2ddct method(17:45) Thematic analysis in psychology(23:15) The DSM-5(25:15) Random Forests Classifier (27:40) Attention is all you need(31:45) Sequences and Consequences(34:30) Publish houses of brick, not mansions of straw(35:30) Outro (Potential AI projects)
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Diffusion of scientific ideas
Mar 17, 202500:47:30Tap to summarizeWe discuss a paper on scientific diffusion—a metric for how widely an idea is spread—and how it can tell you if you are in a bubble.(00:00) Intro: Komal's trip to Langkawi(04:30) Setting goals for the new year(14:00) Million dollar weekend(22:10) Diffusion paper(24:20) Knowledge lab(25:10) What is diffusion (of research papers)(26:45) Two case studies of low and high diffusion papers(30:20) Low diffusion correlates with bubble bursting(34:30) What this means for your own research(39:00) Final thoughts on the paper(40:30) Outro: Building a social task manager app for my friends
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r/spillthetae — A new subreddit for researchers
Feb 18, 202500:52:10Tap to summarizeCheckout r/spillthetae a place to share your insights, hacks, and fuck-ups with other researchers. (00:00) Intro(11:45) Why we started a subreddit(15:30) Spill the TAE(17:00) DMSO freezes at 20*C(19:30) Curios case of the missing mutation(22:20) how miniprep kits separate plasmids from genomic DNA(27:45) which research ideas to follow up on(34:15) don't read papers in PDF format(40:00) Xist RNA might be up to something!(43:00) non-smokers can develop multiple tumors in the lung(48:05) Plans for the subreddit
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How to win a nobel prize
Jan 23, 202500:50:55Tap to summarizeWe discuss this Nature blog post analyzing the characteristics of previous nobel prize winners. (00:00) Intro(18:20) Alfred Nobel and the story behind the prize(22:20) How to win a noble prize(38:00) should you aim to win the prize?(43:45) the utility of ambitious goals(45:45) specific goals vs general direction
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Feedback loops
Jan 6, 202501:10:53Tap to summarize(00:00) Intro and catch up(16:30) Feedback loops in biology research are slow(32:40) How to shorten feedback loops in research: cloning tricks and bacteria as a model system(59:10) Outro: Thoughts on Gene Machine Links: Slow feedback loops rule every (living) thing around meWhy haven't biologists cured cancer?
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How to choose a research question
Jun 10, 202400:57:24Tap to summarizeWe break down the article "Problem choice and decision trees in science and engineering" by Michael A. Fischbach (00:00) Intro(08:15) How to choose a research question(09:45) Spend more time choosing a problem(15:50) Intuition pumps and avoiding common problems(23:30) Don't avoid risk; befriend it(32:45) Pick the right optimization function(36:45) Fix one parameter; let others float(41:20) Learn the “altitude dance”(46:15) Capitalize on the “adversity feature”(48:00) Turn a problem on its head
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Expectations and effort
Apr 23, 202400:39:33Tap to summarizeWe talk about how your expectations from life take an immense amount of effort to manifest and how to manage them (00:00) Intro - Life updates(15:00) Nix on effort(20:30) Oliver Burkemann on expectations(23:00) Starting a discord study group(31:30) AI-assisted literature reviews(35:30) Outro - Movie recommendations
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Cultivating resourcefulness
Mar 24, 202400:47:47Tap to summarizeWe discuss vgr's blog post The Resourceful Life
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Rest
Mar 11, 202400:43:01Tap to summarizeWe talk about the nature of rest, what it means to rest well, and meditation as one form of rest. (00:00) Intro - Mt. Aijen and being inspired by the pod(16:00) On the nature of rest(25:00) The dose maketh the joy(28:10) What it means to be rested(28:40) Meditation as rest(38:10) Fuel sources for productivity
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