In this episode, we hear about the emerging field of palaeoshellomics, wasp eggs that keep their food fresh, a monkey with a missing visual cortex, new biological methods inspired by astronomy and how to mix a family with a research career.
Yong Woo is a research scientist at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) currently researching how the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana acclimatises to heat. Originally from South Korea, he did his higher education, including PhD and post-doctoral training, in the United States before moving to KAUST in Saudi Arabia. He enjoys the beauty of the Saudi Arabian desert and the company of his two boys and wife.
Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist and experimental model for schizophrenia, produces decision-making deficits in monkeys, which are predicted by a lowering of cortical excitation-inhibition balance in a spiking circuit model.