What does a livable city really look like and who gets to decide? In this episode, Enzo Campomanes explains how he developed AI models called "AI-voters" trained on satellite imagery and community input to map urban livability.

📚Reference: Campomanes V, F., Abascal, A., Oliveira, L.T. et al. Whose city is it? Mapping perceived urban livability with citizen-guided AI. npj Urban Sustain 6, 16 (2026).

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.

How can a fungus help control one of the Philippines’ most destructive crop pests? In this episode of Behind the Science Podcast, Marcela M. Navasero and Melissa P. Montecalvo of UPLB’s National Crop Protection Center share how Metarhizium rileyi is being studied as a biological control agent against fall armyworm, along with the real-world challenges of turning lab research into sustainable pest management solutions.

📚Reference:

Valeros JME, Garcia TAP, Sabino NG, Navasero MM, and Montecalvo MP. 2025. Effect of Successive Subculturing on Virulence, Growth, and Germination of Fungus Metarhizium rileyi for Biological Control of Fall Armyworm. The Philippine Agricultural Scientist. 108(4):406–412. ‌

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.

I talked with Engr. Raymond Lagria about his study on classifying and ranking social media posts to prioritize disaster response.

📚Reference: Lagria, R., et. al. “A Text Mining Framework for the Classification and Prioritization of Disaster-Related Tweets for Disaster Response”. Philippine Engineering Journal 2022 Vol. 43, No.: 65-88

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.

I talked with Ms. Cielo Luz C. Mondejar about practical, low-cost ways to improve rice seed quality using organic fertilizers.

📚Reference: Mondejar CL. 2025. Comparative Effects of Organic-Based Seed Treatments on Seed Viability and Vigor of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Varieties. The Philippine Agricultural Scientist. 108(4):305–312.

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.

What happens when you drop 2 quantum particles of different sizes at the same time?

📚Reference: Flores PCM, Galapon EA. 2019. Quantum free-fall motion and quantum violation of the weak equivalence principle. Physical Review A. 99(4). ‌

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.

Kwento ko lang paano ito nagsimula hanggang sa kung ano na ito ngayon.

In this episode, I talked with Dr. Rafaela Jane Delfino about her research on how climate change influences super typhoons in the Philippines. Using high-resolution climate models, her study examines how Super Typhoons Goni (2020) and Rai (2021) respond to past and future climate conditions.

📚Reference: Delfino RJP, Bagtasa G. 2025. Response of super typhoons Goni (2020) and Rai (2021) to past and future climate conditions in convection-permitting model experiments. Environmental Research Communications. 7(9):091013.‌

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.

I talked with Dr. Cherrie May Olaya, a postdoctoral researcher at the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics in Japan. She explains her work on how light behaves at metal surfaces, focusing on a phenomenon known as the photonic spin Hall effect. Using surface plasmon resonance, her study demonstrates a new way to directly measure tiny light shifts that are usually difficult to detect. We discuss why these effects matter, how they can improve optical sensing and imaging technologies, and what it is like to conduct advanced photonics research as a Filipino scientist working abroad.

📚Reference: Olaya CM, Hayazawa N, Balgos MH, Tanaka T. 2025. ⁠Enhancing angular photonic spin Hall effect at surface plasmon resonance⁠. Nanophotonics. 14(19):3115–3124.

🤝Behind The Science Podcast is presented to you by Marine & Earth Science Learning Hub, UP Resilience Institute, The Philippine Agricultural Scientist, The Philippine Journal of Fisheries, and SciEnggJ.