Hunting for new epilepsy drugs, and capturing lightning from space

About one-third of people with epilepsy are treatment resistant. Up until now, epilepsy treatments have focused on taming seizures rather than the source of the disease and for good reason—so many roads lead to epilepsy: traumatic brain injury, extreme fever and infection, and genetic disorders, to name a few. Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel talks with host Sarah Crespi about researchers that are turning back the pages on epilepsy, trying to get to the beginning of the story where new treatments might work.

 

And Sarah also talks with Torsten Neurbert at the Technical University of Denmark’s National Space Institute in Kongens Lyngby about capturing high-altitude “transient luminous events” from the International Space Station (ISS). These lightning-induced bursts of light, color, and occasionally gamma rays were first reported in the 1990s but had only been recorded from the ground or aircraft. With new measurements from the ISS come new insights into the anatomy of lightning.

 

This week’s episode was edited by Podigy.

 

Ads on this week’s show: Bayer; Lightstream; KiwiCo

 

Download a transcript (PDF)

 

Listen to previous podcasts.

 

About the Science Podcast

 

[Image: Gemini Observatory; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

 

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices