《Modeling Matter(s) Episode 2 -- Sukrit Silas: RNA viruses, Y Combinator, and the Ingredients for Doing Good Science》 - 免费有声读物

Modeling Matter(s) is a podcast that showcases early career researchers and the mental models they use to investigate the world around us.

Sukrit Silas is an expert in RNA viruses, an enthusiastic dinner party host, and one of my favorite story tellers. In this podcast, Sukrit and I discuss many of the ingredients needed to do good science (e.g. intuition, humility, and knowing what you know and don’t know) and how we learn them. Sukrit also shares his business adventures (including reverse culture shock) in running clinical trials in India for the start-up he and his colleagues started through the prestigious incubator Y Combinator.

Modeling Matter(s) - Episode 2

Recording date: 2020.10.17

Release date: 2020.12.14

Guest: Sukrit Silas

Host: Tess Smidt

Time Index:

2:03 - COVID-19 in India and US: Expectations vs. Reality

5:24 - Before COVID-19, an unbiased survey of RNA viruses in the oceans

5:45 - Volunteering with the UCSF COVID-19 testing facility

9:15 - How it felt to be part of testing effort

10:40 - Origin of interest in biology

11:50 - Why are so many of your friends physicists?

14:28 - Similarities between Biology and Law

15:30 - Asking the right question

16:03 - Being observant and checking assumptions

16:31 - Learning how to construct a good experiment

18:18 - The sea captain’s intuition vs. SONAR

19:32 - Knowing what you do and don’t know

20:56 - Trust the experiment. Trust the model.

22:35 - Most useful things learned in graduate school

23:16 - What else if not biology?

24:09 - The complexity of living systems

24:58 - Humility and curiosity

25:53 - The more functional way of doing something

28:23 - Y Combinator

30:50 - Finding a niche in India

33:29 - Reverse culture shock

35:31 - Perspectives and incentives

36:08 - Investors

37:37 - No time for A to X. We need A to A.5.

38:22 - Being on the other side of a corporate bank account

39:54 - Summary of YC experience

41:46 - Back in research

44:45 - Lesson on the difficulty of pivots

45:34 - What genes to go after?

46:48 - Which genes are breaking order?

49:33 - The dynamic and dramatic process of virus - host warfare

52:00 - Donate to your local phage biologist TODAY!

52:48 - Community from dinner parties

58:05 - Wrap-up!