SCIENCE FOR PEOPLE WHO GIVE A SHIT
April 10, 2018

#12: Can algorithms predict the next major pandemic?

#12: Can algorithms predict the next major pandemic?

In Episode 12, Quinn and Brian ask: Can algorithms predict the next major pandemic? Pretty please?

Joining us: Dr. Sam Scarpino, Assistant Professor of Marine & Environmental Sciences and Physics and a core faculty member in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.

We discuss whether, and if so, how advanced algorithms and data science can help predict and prevent the next major pandemic. 

Also, the importance of a liberal arts education, bad wifi in 2018, and my wife’s iPhone. 

Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message!


Links: 


Dr. Sam Scarpino on Twitter

Sam’s book selection: On Immunity: An Inoculation

Dharma.ai

Quinn Emmett on Twitter

Brian Colbert Kennedy on Twitter

Intro/outro by Tim Blane

Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com!

Like and share us on Facebook!

Check us on Instagram!

Follow us on Twitter!

Pin us on Pinterest!

Tumble us or whatever the hell you do on Tumblr!

Ok that’s enough good lord

Featured Episodes

May 8, 2023

Fighting Food Waste With The iPhone of Trash Cans

How much food do you throw away every week? And do you have to? That's today's big question, and my guest is Matt Rogers . Matt is a former Apple iPod and iPhone engineer . The Co-Founder of Nest thermostats …

Listen to the Episode
July 10, 2023

How To Live A Happy Life

How can we live happier lives? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Marc Schulz, the co-author with Dr. Robert Waldinger of “The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness” They're t...

Listen to the Episode
April 24, 2023

Every Climate Action Matters

What can I do? The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most imposing. All of which is …

Listen to the Episode
Feb. 20, 2023

Clean Air Is An Inside Job

Imagine you’re in a sci-fi movie. The one where everything’s on the line . And while dinosaurs or aliens or a virus takes over down on the ground, you’re the scientist unexpectedly riding in the helicopter with the actual pre...

Listen to the Episode
Oct. 30, 2023

What Causes Depression?

Content Warning We're going to be talking about stress and anxiety, depression, suicide, and more today. If any of this could be triggering to you in any way, please feel free to just skip over this one. Nothing in this …

Listen to the Episode
Nov. 6, 2023

Can Your Gut Predict Alzheimer's?

Can your gut composition predict Alzheimer's? That's today's big question and my returning guest is Gautam Dantas. Gautam heads up the Dantas Lab at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis . His lab works at...

Listen to the Episode
Nov. 13, 2023

The Female Origin of Species

How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution? And why the hell are we just finding out about it now? That's today's big question, and my guest is Cat Bohannon . Cat is the author of …

Listen to the Episode
Dec. 4, 2023

How To Make Ethical Decisions

Has there ever been a more important time, a more consequential time, to lead with ethics? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Susan Liautaud . Susan is the author of The Power of Ethics and of the …

Listen to the Episode