The Lab at azcentral

Doctors’ offices and medical spas in Arizona are getting flooded with requests for prescriptions for these drugs. They originally were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but their success in helping people lose weight is what's making them a near-household name. As patients are reporting promising results, word is getting around. It’s almost impossible to avoid hearing about Ozempic, Wegovy and their active ingredient, semaglutide, in the news or on social media. But are these new so-called miracle drugs too good to be true? Who are they really for, and how can people get them? This week on The Lab at azcentral, we look into how the drugs work and the reality of how they make people feel. We spoke with doctors, patients and others to find out why the drugs are different from other weight-loss interventions and why the medications have become divisive, both culturally and socioeconomically. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The saguaro cactus is perhaps the most iconic symbol of our state. You can find it everywhere from coffee cups to murals to tattoos. People love saguaros but we know surprisingly little about them. The Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix and other researchers are trying to fix that. The first step is to count as many of the saguaros growing in the Valley as possible. "Naively, we call this the Saguaro Census because we thought we were going to be capable of counting every single saguaro in the city. We clearly overestimated our capabilities because the Phoenix Valley is huge," Tania Hernandez says. She works as a research scientist at the Desert Botanical Gardens. For help with this task, the Gardens are turning to the public for help. In this episode of The Lab, in conjunction with Valley 101, we're exploring two questions: why does the saguaro cactus only grow in the Sonoran Desert? And how many are there? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe when you think of pollen, you think of bees, or a commercial for allergy medicine. But what about cracking cold cases? It might sound like a Sherlock Holmes story, but this is real life: unlike some other forms of evidence, pollen sticks around on hair, clothes and objects for a long time. And the unique shapes of pollen grains under a microscope can reveal geographic clues that help detectives track down everything from missing persons to counterfeit goods. In this episode, you’ll meet the only three forensic palynologists (AKA pollen-science sleuths) in the country. You’ll also meet an ASU researcher working on mathematical models that could make it easier for investigators to pinpoint where pollen samples are coming from. Along the way, you’ll learn the surprising ways that environmental change and crime-solving technology intersect – and how two species of cedar trees helped catch a killer. So grab your magnifying glass, put on your trench coat, and follow us into The Lab for the last episode of Season 1. Content note: This episode is about how scientists use pollen to help solve crimes. We won’t go into graphic detail, but we will discuss some of those crimes, including a case involving the death of a child. If you ever find yourself in possession of a microscope and an unknown type of pollen, this guide could help you figure it out. (It also has lots of cool images illustrating the shapes of different species’ pollen grains.) Learn more about forensic palynology and Daoqin Tong’s mathematical modeling research in this piece from ASU. Read about how U.S. Customs and Border Protection is using pollen as a forensic tool in this CBP magazine from 2016. Find out more about the Baby Doe case in this explainer or dive deeper into an archive of coverage from The Boston Globe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When scientists are talking to plants, they’re trying to ask them questions. What do you need to grow more effectively? To produce crops more efficiently? And sometimes, they’re asking something else: Now that you’re in a drought, and you’re not getting any water, how are you going to react? Yes, they’re asking questions, and they’re getting answers. But the answers are about something bigger than next year’s crop. In our second episode about talking to plants, you’ll go to a desert farm field and a humid rainforest. You might not believe this, but both of them are in Arizona. And you’ll hear from one person who isn’t talking to plants at all. She’s talking about the climate they’re living in – the one we’re all living in. Join us in the Lab, to hear what the plants – and the people – have to say. Our exploration of plants, and the people who talk to them, really started when we looked at the people taking genes from succulents and using them to help other kinds of crops save water. We said the story of the original research at Biosphere 2 would probably need to be its own podcast. Our colleagues at The Arizona Republic give you a little taste of why, here, and here. Laura Meredith, who gave us the tour of Biosphere 2 along with her colleague Joost van Haren, worked on the drought experiment there. That research was published in the journal Science. Antonieta Cadiz, who told us about her family’s encounter with climate change, is an advocate for the group Climate Power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grace Hala’ufia spends hours watching videos of fruit flies. Specifically, mutant fruit flies that are a bit more aggressive than your average winged trash can resident. Then, she keeps score, carefully tallying every second of every fight. Why? Listen to the Lab at azcentral to find out. Along the way, you’ll travel from Phoenix to Tucson. You’ll zoom in through a microscope at the inner workings of the brain. And you’ll get a wide-angle view of how researchers, communities and caregivers intersect, all in service of improving human health. Learn more about Grace Hala’ufia’s work in the lab and on the University of Arizona track and field team here: https://arizonawildcats.com/news/2021/12/2/track-and-field-who-we-are-grace-hala-ufia.aspx. Dig in deeper on Daniela Zarnescu’s latest scientific paper on Drosophila models of ALS here: https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/12/2/101. And find out more about her work on her lab website, http://mcb2.arizona.edu/zarnescu/. You can attend future “Real Talk” dementia and Alzheimer’s conversations through the following link: https://easthillmedia.com/FIBCO-Real-Talk/. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices