This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Why are some corals more resilient to bleaching than others? How should we leverage genetic and epigenetic information to conserve coral diversity? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Hollie Putnam ( @HolliePutnam ), a professor at the University of Rhode Island, about threats to coral reefs and the steps she and her colleagues are taking to preserve coral diversity. Warming oceans disrupt the relation...
Mar 25, 2021•30 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What can modern hunter-gatherer societies teach us about human energy budgets? What misconceptions do we have about weight loss and weight management? Are there limits to human endurance? On this episode, we talk with Herman Pontzer ( @HermanPontzer ) of Duke University. We discuss his new book Burn , in which he examines -- and in some cases overturns -- received wisdom about human energy budgets and human met...
Mar 11, 2021•32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How did vocal learning evolve? What is special about human language? What brain structures are associated with speech and the many components of spoken language? On this episode, we talk with Erich Jarvis ( @erichjarvis ), a professor at Rockefeller University, about the neurobiology of vocal communication. Erich’s ideas draw on the amazing breadth of auditory and vocal capacities among mammals and birds - from...
Feb 25, 2021•30 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What is coevolution? How has coevolution between insects and plants shaped human history and culture? In this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Rob Raguso , a professor at Cornell University, who studies insect-plant interactions. Rob discusses his work on diffuse coevolution between night blooming flowers and their long-tongued hawk moth pollinators, and how his and others’ ideas leading to geographic mosai...
Feb 11, 2021•34 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Why are bee populations declining? How can we reliably monitor insect populations when many are so cryptic? And what steps can we take to ensure that populations remain viable? In this episode, we talk with Dave Goulson ( @DaveGoulson ), a professor of biology at the University of Sussex. Dave studies the ecology and conservation of insects, particularly bumblebees, and he is the founder of the Bumblebee Conser...
Jan 28, 2021•29 min
We are jumping into the podcast feed with a few quick updates. We’re revamping our Patreon tier system to give you more Big Biology content. We also created a Facebook group where you can discuss Big Biology episodes with other fans and we're starting to upload transcripts for select episodes on BigBiology.org . Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/bigbio Join the Facebook Group Read the transcripts This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access ...
Jan 19, 2021•2 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com On this episode of Big Biology we talk to Christine Cooper ( @CECooperEcophys ), a vertebrate ecophysiologist and professor at Curtin University , Australia. Christine’s research focuses on the thermal, metabolic, and water physiology of Australian mammals and birds. Her recent research, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology (a sponsor of this episode), details how one small and common bird, the zebr...
Jan 14, 2021•20 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What is a germ cell and why do animals separate germ and soma (body) cells at all? What molecules determine whether cells become germ or soma, and are some such mechanisms products of horizontal gene transfer? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Cassandra Extavour, an evolutionary developmental biologist at Harvard who studies the how's and why's of germ cell differentiation in insects. Recently, Cassa...
Dec 17, 2020•30 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How has the amount of artificial light changed over the last 150 years? In what ways does artificial light affect human health and wildlife? And how can new lighting technologies ameliorate the effects of light pollution? On this episode of Big Biology we talk to Kevin Gaston ( @KevinJGaston ), a professor of Biodiversity & Conservation at the University of Exeter . Kevin is an expert on the ecological impa...
Dec 03, 2020•28 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How can local and state governments repair the damage done by COVID-19? Is there a vaccine on its way to a pharmacy near you? And what should you expect about lockdowns, facemasks, and new COVID-19 therapies in the coming months? On this episode of Big Biology, a panel of experts discusses the virus’s trajectory and impact, and our options going forward. This conversation was recorded live at Busch Gardens in T...
Nov 19, 2020•33 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What is the role of chance in explaining variation in biology? How has it shaped the history of life on Earth? And how do scientists incorporate chance into their performing experiments? In this episode of BigBiology, we talk to Sean Caroll , an award-winning scientist, author, educator and, film-producer about his latest book, A Series of Fortunate Events , in which he writes about how chance has shaped life o...
Nov 05, 2020•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Are whales the biggest animals to have ever lived? Why have they evolved to become so gigantic? What key adaptations support their immense size? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk to Jeremy Goldbogen ( @GoldbogenLab ), a scientist at the Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University. For the past few years he has been tracking blue whales, aiming to understand how their physiology sustains their massive si...
Oct 22, 2020•26 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How did life originate on Earth? Why is it that eukaryotes but not bacteria or archaea evolved large size and complicated body forms? How likely is that life has arisen independently elsewhere in the universe? On this episode, we talk with Nick Lane , a biochemist and professor at University College London, about his 2015 book The Vital Question . Nick argues that protolife arose in alkaline hydrothermal vents ...
Oct 08, 2020•32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How did the Brown Recluse get its powerful bite? How widespread is venom across the tree of life? How do spiders use their venoms? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with spider venom expert Greta Binford ( @gretabinford ), a Biology Professor and Biology Department Chair at Lewis & Clark University. Her lab explores the vast chemical richness of spider venom and how those venoms have evolved. We talke...
Sep 24, 2020•22 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Where, when, and how did Homo sapiens appear? What do we know about the complex set of ancestral hominins that preceded us? How recently did other hominin lineages live and what happened to them? In this episode we talk with Kate Wong , a senior editor at Scientific American, about her latest article, The Origin of Us . Our understanding of hominin evolution over the past several million years has been transfor...
Sep 10, 2020•32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Which animals are conscious, and how can we tell? Does it matter? Although many people think of insects as simple organisms that react in preprogrammed ways to their environments, scientists know increasingly that insect have subtle and complex forms of behavior and learning. But are they conscious? On this episode, we talk with Lars Chittka, a biologist at Queen Mary University of London who studies the evolut...
Aug 27, 2020•15 min
This podcast was originally broadcast by Complexity, a podcast from the Santa Fe Institute on April, 20 2020. Big Biology has featured several scientists connected to the Santa Fe Institute, and now SFI has its own podcast called Complexity. You can listen to all of their episodes here: https://complexity.simplecast.com/ This episode, as well as show notes, are available here: https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/29 Complexity features wide-ranging conversations with the Santa Fe Institute...
Aug 26, 2020•44 min
The first episode of season three is coming out later this week. Here's a taste of what's coming up. Right now, we're looking for a few interns to join our team. If you love Big Biology and you're interested in science communication send us an application at www.bigbiology.org/jobs This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe...
Aug 24, 2020•3 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Today we’re replaying of our discussion with science writer David Quamme n. We talked with him in 2018 about his most recent book, the Tangled Tree , which explores the influence of horizontal gene transfer on the evolution of life on Earth. But right now, it’s one of his previous books that is essential reading. In 2012, he published a book called Spillover that described the risk of new diseases jumping from ...
Aug 06, 2020•30 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com This episode was originally published in 2018. It's one of our most popular episodes of all time, so we decided to run it again while we're in between seasons. Look for new Big Bio episodes in August. What is life? How did life arise from non-life? What did life look like at its origin? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk with Sara Walker , an expert in astrobiology and theoretical physics at Ariz...
Jul 23, 2020•34 min
How are early stage scientists pushing biology forward? What’s it like to be a graduate student during a global pandemic? Over the last several months, we’ve been collecting short audio clips from biology students describing their research. Associate Producer Michael Levin spearheaded the project, which we called the Student Spotlight. On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with four students who submitted the best audio clips for that project. We talked about their science, and also asked them...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 8 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What’s the slimiest fish on Earth? Why are they so slimy? And can we leverage our understanding of slime to make better bioengineered materials? In this episode we talk with Doug Fudge, an Associate Professor at Chapman University, about his research on hagfish slime. Over the past 20 years, Doug and his lab and collaborators have figured out how and why hagfish produce slime, how the slime’s remarkable propert...
Jun 12, 2020•27 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What can we learn from animals by constantly tracking their movements with transmitters? How can we use information from collectives of animals to study and predict disease spread, earthquakes, and outbreaks of pests? How do you transform a massive, international scientific idea into a reality? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Martin Wikelski, the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Beha...
May 28, 2020•32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Why are amphibians across the world dying from a fungal infection? Where did the fungus come from? How does it kill and are populations adapting? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Craig Franklin, a biologist at the University of Queensland and the director of research for the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, about the history and distribution of the fungus, how it’s killing so many species, and what we ...
May 15, 2020•21 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Where did the new coronavirus come from? How can we be on the lookout for new diseases emerging from animals? Now that the coronavirus has infected humans, what’s the best path forward? In this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Andy Dobson, a disease ecologist at Princeton University who studies epidemics like the current COVID-19 outbreak. We talked with him about the possible animal origins of the virus, t...
Apr 30, 2020•21 min
We’re getting ready for season three next fall. We already have a bunch of great guests lined up to talk about the evolution of venom, insect intelligence and human evolution. But we need your financial support to make that happen. Our goal is to raise at least $1,500 from listeners. If we aren’t able to accomplish that, we’ll need to drastically scale back production for season three. We know this is a tough time to ask for your help, but if you’re able, we would really appreciate your financia...
Apr 21, 2020•2 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How do hormones like testosterone coordinate important activities in an animal’s life, and how might those activities tradeoff with one another? How do the microbial communities living on birds affect the scents they give off, and how do those scents influence the birds’ choices of mates? In this episode, we talk with Ellen Ketterson, an evolutionary biologist at Indiana University, Bloomington, about her work ...
Apr 16, 2020•36 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How do animals construct tissues, organs, and limbs in the right places during development? How do some animals manage to regenerate missing body parts? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Michael Levin, a biologist at Tufts University who studies how electric fields inside animals guide cells during development and regeneration. His work shows that electric fields play fundamental roles in structuring...
Apr 02, 2020•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How is COVID-19 transmitted and how broad will the pandemic become? What can mathematical models of infectious disease tell us? What are steps we can take now to slow the spread? On this episode of Big Biology, we speak with John Drake, the Director of the Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia, who has been working with the CDC to understand the dynamics of the COVID-19 outb...
Mar 17, 2020•16 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What forms of consciousness exist in the natural world? What roles did associative learning and episodic like memory play in its origins? Does consciousness have a function, and is it an adaptation? On this episode of Big Biology, we speak with Eva Jablonka from the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv, and Moncy Ginsburg, a neurobiologist formerly from the Open Universit...
Mar 13, 2020•32 min
