Podcast: Analysing Trump voters, Jupiter mission launch, and COVID oximeter test

In this edition: What links Trump voters, how we’re going to investigate Jupiter’s moons, and why it’s a good idea to ask if a medical trial is fair.

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News: Surface COVID transmission and the sounds of space – We hear about the first evidence of COVID-19 transmission occurring through hands and surfaces within households, and find out how the public can help space research by listening to the sounds of plasma.

Who votes for Donald Trump? – We chat to Sanaz Talaifar, who recently collaborated on research about who voted for Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. She talks about how areas with higher neuroticism and those suffering more economically were more likely to vote for Trump – a continuation of a pattern of populist voting throughout history.

On the way to Jupiter – Before the JUICE mission successfully launched on its way to study Jupiter’s moons and their potential for hosting life, we caught up with magnetometer instrument lead Professor Michele Dougherty.

A fair trial – Medical programmes are often assessed by whether they ‘work’ – whether they save lives and money – but what about whether they are ‘fair’? We talk to Dr Jonathan Clarke, an Imperial researcher who looked into this dimension for a pulse oximeter trial during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The podcast is presented by Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer on Imperial's MSc Science Communication course. He’s also a longstanding BBC presenter and reporter. Gareth is joined each month by our roving reporters in the Communications Division.