Sustainable Nano

Sustainable Nano is the podcast of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, hosted by Miriam Krause, and it is as interested in the scientist as in the science. Conversations tend to start on something concrete, like a first lab job, a class or a career decision. From there they widen, slowly, into lessons about mentoring, communication and what research asks of people. Dr. Ahna Skop, of the Genetics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, credits federal work study with getting her into a lab as a freshman, and says she tries to steer other work-study students into labs early. She also remembers drawing the embryos she studied in developmental biology and still has those notes. That fits a show whose host names art and science as one of its favorite topics. Dr. Stuart Cantrill, Editorial Director of Physics and Chemistry Journals at Nature, describes going from the launch team at Nature Nanotechnology to chief editor of Nature Chemistry. He got that role in London after saying up front that he would not relocate to Boston. His takeaway is practical: apply even if you doubt you have every skill, and ask about the location. That interview came about because Dr. Safiya Jelani, a postdoctoral fellow at the center, was visiting him and his family in the UK over Thanksgiving. Handing the interview to someone from the center happens in several episodes. Center director Dr. Bob Hamers talks with Dr. Mike Curry, a nanoengineering professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and a longtime center collaborator, about building a company that carries products from HBCU labs to commercialization and puts resources back into training HBCU students. The conversation weighs the usual worry about conflicts of interest when faculty take ideas out of the lab against how much students can gain. Graduate student Beza Tuga, from the University of Minnesota, interviews Dr. Jason White, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who recalls a small crew coming in every day to keep the station running through the pandemic. Another episode treats improv as a science communication tool: two people act out a scene about an IR peak, then work through how to challenge a colleague's reading without shutting her down. Krause sometimes records the introduction with the guest interviewer, who explains what drew them to the conversation. The show has a companion blog with hundreds of posts, mostly written by students in the center. Sign-offs use small-scale mottos, from 'little things can make a big difference' to 'there's no small science, only small particles.' A Season 7 preview notes that the center has completed its grant funding and announces a final mini-season of three episodes, including one with Dr. Della Mosley, the center's Wellness, Equity, and Liberation Consultant, and one with Hamers and associate director Christy Haynes. The preview is frank about a hard year for science in the United States and offers the farewell episodes as some insight and maybe a little hope.