This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Are genes the primary units of selection and main drivers of adaptation? How does a gene’s-eye view of evolution fit into modern biology? On this episode, we talk with Arvid Ågren , an evolutionary biologist and Wenner-Gren Fellow at Uppsala University, about his new book , “The Gene’s-Eye View of Evolution”. The book chronicles the history of gene-centric views of evolution, which burst onto the scene in 1976 ...
Dec 02, 2021•42 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Why is the Serengeti such a special ecosystem? Why does it support so many different species, and what ecological processes regulate the enormous population sizes of its dominant large-bodied herbivores? On this episode, we talk with Tony Sinclair , professor emeritus of zoology at the University of British Columbia, about his new book “A Place Like No Other: Discovering the Secrets of Serengeti” . Since the 19...
Nov 11, 2021•46 min
How do diseases spread from animals to humans? Is it possible to forecast where disease outbreaks will occur and when they will blow up into major health crises? In one of the earliest episodes of Big Biology, Marty and Art talk to Barbara Han , a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, about her research on zoonotic disease, how we track the spread of infectious diseases and whether we'll ever be able to predict outbreaks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss...
Oct 28, 2021•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What causes Alzheimer’s disease? Why are some people more at risk than others? What are the prospects for a cure and the best options for slowing the onset of symptoms? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Daniel Gibbs , a retired neurologist, about his new book: “A Tattoo on My Brain: A Neurologist’s Personal Battle Against Alzheimer’s Disease”. A few years back, Dan discovered his genetic predispositi...
Oct 14, 2021•34 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What is the free energy principle? How do our brains use active inference to manage uncertainty and stress? On this episode, we talk with Karl Friston , world-renowned neuroscientist at University College London , about his free energy principle. In order for the human brain or any other self-evidencing system (be it Earthly or alien) to exist, they must be able to make inferences about their environments, and ...
Sep 30, 2021•57 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What does the world look like through insect eyes? What biological mechanisms make their vision different from our own? And how might those differences influence their evolution? On this episode, we talk with UC Irvine evolutionary biologist Adriana Briscoe ( @AdrianaBriscoe ) about color vision in insects, particularly Heliconius butterflies. We discuss how their perception of the world has led to such massive...
Sep 16, 2021•32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What do we mean by ‘extreme ecological events’? What’s more important to a population, more frequent extremes or changes to average conditions? How should we link the performance of individuals to the success or failure of entire populations? On this episode, we talk with Mark Denny , Stanford University professor of marine science and former director of the Hopkins Marine Station. In his 2019 paper , “Performa...
Sep 02, 2021•33 min
Season 4 of Big Biology will kick off at the end of August. Before then, Art and Marty have a few updates to share: We're looking for new interns to join our team and help produce the show! Also, we're hiring an executive producer to help with management and episode production. The application is available on the USF career page for a limited time - please consider applying! Please send us an email at info@bigbiology.org with any questions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this...
Jul 27, 2021•6 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Is artificial light at night partly responsible for insect declines? How does it affect nocturnal insects, especially fireflies and other species that need darkness to thrive? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Avalon Owens ( @avalonceleste ), a PhD candidate at Tufts University whose research aims to better understand the effects of artificial light at night (or ALAN) on insects. We discuss what ligh...
Jul 01, 2021•26 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What has COVID-19 taught us about preparing for future epidemics? Can we trigger innate immune responses – our first lines of defense - to mitigate novel infections? Can we use live-attenuated vaccines (LAV) meant for other infections to protect us while we develop specific vaccines for new pathogens? On this episode, we talk to virologists Konstantin Chumakov and Robert Gallo about their recent paper entitled ...
Jun 17, 2021•16 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What is agency? How does it evolve? Do non-living things have agency? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Tufts University professor Michael Levin about his recent article in Aeon magazine called ‘Cognition all the way down’. In it, Mike and Dan Dennett discuss the phenomenon of agency and what it means for biology, basic to medical. We discuss with Mike what it means to be an agent - whether you’re a ...
Jun 03, 2021•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com How do organisms cope with long periods of tough conditions where regular life is impossible? How do some animals turn down their metabolism to levels so low that they can appear dead? How do animals emerge from such deep, low activity states? In this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Jason Podrabsky , a professor of biology at Portland State University, about diapause – a remarkable physiological state in w...
May 20, 2021•36 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Can selection act on ecosystems, societies, or planets such that some persist and others disappear? Must such systems reproduce to evolve? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk to Tim Lenton , Director of the Global Systems Institute ( @GSI_Exeter ) and a Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. In his 2021 Trends in Ecology & Evolution paper “ Survival of the Syst...
May 06, 2021•32 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com Are genes the prime movers in evolution, or is causality distributed across multiple levels of organization? What role do organisms play in evolution? Could organismal agency , the propensity to respond actively to selective forces, affect standard evolutionary theory? On this episode, we talk with Denis Walsh , a professor and philosopher of biology at the University of Toronto, about his book Organisms, Agenc...
Apr 22, 2021•37 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.com What is CRISPR? Who are the key players behind its discovery? And what does it mean for science both now and in the future? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk to renowned author Walter Isaacson ( @WalterIsaacson ) about his new book, Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race . We break down the rich history of the gene editing CRISPR-Cas9 system--from its initial discove...
Apr 08, 2021•31 min
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
