Big Biology (Art Woods, Cam Ghalambor, and Marty Martin)

What led to a recent series of research paper retractions in behavioral ecology? How do scientists trust the data their collaborators share? Earlier this year, several journals retracted papers using data collected by the biologist, Jonathan Pruitt, data that upon inspection were found to have several problems. On this episode, we talk with Dan Bolnick, Editor-in-Chief of The American Naturalist, one of the journals involved in the retractions. We talked with Dan about how he and others discovered the problems, the current status of the investigation, and the consequences of the flawed data for other authors on the retracted papers and the field as a whole. Check out our website, bigbiology.org, for more resources on this topic. Episode art: Bernard Dupont (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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 body plans and, in some species, can even be inherited across generations.

Can genes in single species act as keystones in ecosystems? What is AOP2, and how does it affect community composition and persistence?

In this episode, we talk to Matt Barbour, a professor at the University of Sherbrooke, about “keystones” in biology. You’re probably familiar with the keystone species concept, but Matt’s research focuses on whether genes can play a similarly fundamental role in an ecosystem. In an incredible set of experiments, Matt and his colleagues used simple experimental food webs to find that the stability of these miniature complex systems was strongly associated to the genotype at one specific locus in the plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, called AOP2. The particular genetic variant led to complete breakdown of community stability, imbuing that gene with a keystone-like function.

We talk to Matt about his recent publication in the journal Science and discuss how results from his simple lab setup relates to keystone effects in natural communities.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

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 Tampa, Florida, in partnership with the University of South Florida College of Public Health and Morsani College of Medicine and the City of Tampa.

The panel consisted of Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa, Kami Kim, a physician and professor who specializes in infectious diseases, Edwin Michael, an epidemiologist focused on the population ecology of disease transmission, and Michael Teng, an immunologist with expertise in vaccine development. We moderate as the experts look ahead, and discuss what we can expect long-term.

Photo: Allison Long

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.

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 “Old vaccines for new infections”. They and their colleagues argue that we can fight novel pathogens, like SARS-COV2, by stimulating our innate immune systems with live-attenuated vaccines developed for other pathogens (e.g., measles, rubella, polio). Such an approach might buy us time, particularly for front-line health workers or the most vulnerable among us, while pathogen-specific vaccines are developed. Many LAVs are cheap, easy to distribute, and already available where SARS-COV2 is common but its vaccine is not. We talked with Chumakov and Gallo about the prospects of using the LAV approach for future pandemics, why we didn’t use them to control COVID, and the possible mechanisms by which these old vaccines wield their surprising power.

Image: Number of people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of June 16, 2021 (collated by Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus). Total number of people who received all doses prescribed by the vaccination protocol. This data is only available for countries which report the breakdown of doses administered by first and second doses.

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, “Performance in a variable world,” Mark reviewed how organisms perform in highly variable environments -- a problem that has taken on new urgency as climates change. We also talk about extreme ecological events -- what they are, why they occur, and how they affect organisms. Often, extreme conditions arise from unusual combinations of otherwise normal patterns of variation in multiple underlying factors. Predicting the effects of climate extremes therefore requires holistic approaches to monitoring environments coupled with an integrative understanding of animal physiology and behavior.

This episode of Big Biology is sponsored by the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. Founded in 1892, Hopkins Marine Station is the oldest marine laboratory on America’s west coast conducting research that addresses fundamental questions at every level of marine biology, from genes to ecosystems.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

What’s the smallest number of genes that cells need to grow and reproduce? Is it possible to synthesize minimal genomes and insert them into cells? What do minimal genomes teach us about life?

In this episode, we talk to John Glass, leader of the Synthetic Biology Group at the J. Craig Venter Institute. Over the past decade, Glass and colleagues developed techniques for manipulating and synthesizing entire bacterial genomes. Starting with Mycoplasma bacteria, which have very small genomes, they determined the minimal number of genes (473!) required to support life. They experimentally confirmed this number by synthesizing genomes from scratch, containing just the essential genes, and putting them into other bacteria whose genomes were removed. Cells in this lineage, called JCVI-syn3.0, grow and divide approximately like wildtype cells do.

We talk with John about how they pulled it off and what this minimal genome tells us about life more generally. We also chat about the functions of essential genes and what so-called non-essential genes may do in the wild. Finally, we touch on what if anything minimal genomes say about the origin of life and on the group’s ongoing efforts to synthesize entire cells – not just genomes! – from scratch.

Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

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 impacts of artificial light and in particular “sky glow”--the combined glow of all lights coming from cities and towns. In our chat, we discussed how light production has grown over the past several decades and the growing impacts that it's having on our planet. Further, we discuss some of the psychology behind the human desire for bright spaces and what we as individuals can do to reduce the impacts of light pollution on ourselves and the organisms around us.

This episode is sponsored by the Zoological Lighting Institute. Recognizing that natural light is a central aspect of animal health and ecological function, The Zoological Lighting Institute promotes scientific research to improve understanding of what artificial changes in light mean for animals and the human communities that depend on them. Through education on light pollution, ZLI hopes that proper and sustainable approaches to care and development of light sources can be taken by communities around the globe.

What is the “infinitesimal model”? How has our understanding of complex traits changed recently?

On this episode, we talk with Nick Barton, an evolutionary quantitative geneticist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Quantitative genetics has changed a lot in the past 30 years, driven by massive advances in DNA sequencing power and by new statistical and computational approaches to harnessing the data flood. Nick works at the forefront of the field, developing and testing new theory, and we discuss both his research and his perspectives on these changes. We end by asking Nick about his advice for early career researchers who want to navigate the complex landscape composed of theory, computation, and data.

Cover art by Keating Shahmehri
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How does one of the most diverse groups on the planet, the ants, interact with the extremely diverse group of microbes that live on and inside them?

On this episode, we talk to Corrie Moreau, a professor of entomology at Cornell University, about the diversity and influence of microbes in ants. For Corrie, these microbes are a sort of internal rainforest, whose presence directly impacts the lives of the ants who carry them. Many ant-microbe relationships have evolved over millions of years, resulting in specialized interactions – from fungus-farming in leaf cutter ants, to insect mind control by the Ophiocordyceps fungus, to distortion of insect reproduction by Wolbachia bacteria. We also chat with Corrie about science communication, and how making biology a welcoming and diverse place will inspire the next generation of researchers and promote greater trust in science by the public.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

What is mutation bias and how can scientists study it? How does changing a population’s mutation bias influence its evolutionary trajectory?

In this episode, we talk with Deepa Agashe, an Associate Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India. We first talk with Deepa about mutation bias and how she uses  E. coli to understand it. We then focus on a 2023 PNAS paper about the fitness effects of experimentally changing the mutation bias in E. coli. In this research, Deepa and her team used a strain (MutY) of bacteria containing a mutation that knocks out an important DNA repair enzyme. They then isolated subsequent single mutations produced within both MutY and wildtype lines and studied the fitness effects of those mutations. Surprisingly, more than a third of mutations in the mutant lines were beneficial, and often across several different environments. Zooming out, the big picture is that shifts in mutation bias seem to generate new kinds of mutations that weren’t previously accessible to lineages, and a greater fraction of those may be beneficial in some circumstances.

Art by Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

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, Agency, and Evolution. The Modern Synthesis, which combines Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Mendel’s theory of genetic inheritance, was a giant leap forward in our understanding of the evolution of populations. Denis argues, however, that the extreme abstraction required by the synthesis derails our understanding of evolution. What’s needed instead, he suggests, is renewed focus on organisms. Because organisms have agency, they in effect construct the environments they experience, which in turn affects how selection acts on them. This view reestablishes organisms – not genes – as the central unit of evolution, just as Darwin’s ‘struggle for existence’ emphasized.

Photo credit: Blue Dragon nudibranch (Pteraeolidia ianthina) by Saspotato (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

How should we study complex biological networks? How do cells keep time and stay in sync? What does it mean for a network to be resilient?

In this episode, we talk with Rosemary Braun, Associate Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and a member of the NSF-Simons Center for Quantitative Biology. Rosemary is broadly interested in learning whether “more is different” when it comes to complex molecular networks operating across different temporal and spatial scales. We talk with her about systems approaches to uncovering the “Rules of Life” and about circadian (daily) rhythms. She and her team use machine learning to understand emergent phenomena in networks, with the goal of helping medical professionals target treatments based on an individual patient’s circadian rhythm.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

How do mantis shrimp punch as fast as a bullet… underwater? How do they break open one of the toughest materials on earth?

Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Sheila Patek about how mantis shrimp pack such a powerful punch and why we should care. For example, mantis shrimp hammers can be used hundreds of thousands of times to break open the tough shells of snails and clams, and this research may help inspire lightweight, heavy duty military armor.

Sheila studies the mechanics of ultrafast movements at Duke University. You may have seen her work featured by Science News (and numerous others) about the rules of animal fight clubs. But we can't talk about those.

Season 5 of Big Biology starts next week, so this week we are thrilled to highlight Genetics Unzipped, another one of the great science podcasts out there. Genetics Unzipped is the official podcast of the Genetics Society, one of the oldest learned societies dedicated to promoting  research, training, teaching and public engagement in all areas of genetics. 

Hosted and produced by Drs Kat Arney and Sally Le Page, Genetics Unzipped entertains listeners with fascinating stories about all things genetics and DNA. In this episode, learn the science behind the macabre question, "when should you eat your relatives?" A look at kin-selection and all the wild scenarios in nature where this question arises, this episode is one of our favorites for all the “family dinner” puns alone!  

Visit www.geneticsunzipped.com to learn more and see full episode transcripts, subscribe to Genetics Unzipped wherever you get podcasts, and say hello on Twitter @GeneticsUnzip

What are network motifs, and how and why do they matter to biological networks?

On this episode, we talk with Uri Alon, systems biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, about biological networks. In the early 2000s, Uri discovered some of the fundamental characteristics of these networks and, since then, has worked to understand networks across different levels of biological organization. His work shows that, from genes to whole organisms, networks are filled with repeating patterns of connections known as network motifs, such as feedback and feedforward loops. We talk about how the motifs arise and what they mean for the performance and evolution of the systems in which they’re embedded. Moving farther afield, we also talk about how scientists can productively move into new areas, and how Uri teaches early-stage scientists to leap confidently into the unknown. And a bonus: Uri sings and plays guitar for us!

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

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 learning simple sounds to imitating sounds to producing complex, flexible vocalizations. We also discuss the unique “circuit within a circuit” neural networks of parrots that allow them to create such a rich repertoire of sounds. At the end, we talk about human speech and about what sign language, singing, and our “inner voice” tells us about its evolution.

Why do humans look so different from one another? Why do we have different types of hair and different skin colors? And what do these traits have to do with the concept of race?

On this episode, we talk with Tina Lasisi, incoming professor at the University of Michigan, about variation in human hair structure and skin color. We talk about why such variation may have evolved, and how biologists are studying it. We also discuss the implications of her work for the concept of race. Tina encourages scientists and the public to be curious about (rather than afraid of) human diversity, as it’s an obvious part of our world that should be understood from multiple perspectives, including biological.

Also be sure to check out the Preprints in Motion podcast here!

Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

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.

How are cephalopods like us, but also completely alien? How can they become so intelligent when they have such short lives? How do they coordinate a distributed set of brains?

In this episode, we talk with Danna Staaf, a science communicator and marine biologist with a lifelong love of cephalopods. Danna earned a PhD from Stanford University studying baby squid, and she has written several cephalopod-themed books. Our conversation focuses on Danna’s most recent, The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives: A Natural History of Cephalopods, a beautiful exploration of the diversity of these wacky, wonderful creatures. We discuss cephalopod evolution, morphology, and reproduction, focusing on several fun facts that you can pull out at your next dinner party.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

How do biologists strike a productive balance between descriptive natural history and manipulative experiments in the lab or field? Should we bring back species to areas where they’ve gone extinct and what values do we use to make these decisions? What is wildness and how do we cultivate it?

On this episode, we talk with Harry Greene, a herpetologist and adjunct professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin, whose distinguished career has spanned decades. Harry is an E.O. Wilson Award recipient and also received the PEN Literary award for his book, Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature. In the episode, we talk with Harry about the importance of natural history to biology. We also tackle the topic of rewilding, a type of biological restoration that involves translocating species where they still occur to regions where they no longer are found, in order to restore ecosystem function. Harry talks about how his views on rewilding have changed over time, including how rewilding ourselves could improve our health and happiness

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

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 Conservation Trust. Bumblebees and wild bees provide pollination services for over 50% of the food we consume—so ensuring their long-term viability is critical to our food security. Dave says that bees and other insects face many challenges, especially from neonicotinoid insecticides and from protozoan diseases and ectoparasites. We talk with Dave about the effects of anthropogenic stressors and the rapid action needed from individuals, farmers, policymakers, and governments to help maintain healthy bee populations.

Photo: Pieter Haringsma

How and when did early humans domesticate the plants that we use today? Did these ancient farmers purposefully select traits, or did they domesticate unconsciously? In the future, can breeders and farmers grow more nutritious and robust food using genomics?

In this episode, we talk to Michael Purugganan, an evolutionary biologist at NYU, about some of our favorite foods, where they came from, and what to do to ensure we will still have them in the future.

We also talk about rice, an essential staple crop for the world. Michael describes his genomic work with rice to make it more robust and resilient, especially in the face of climate change and a growing human population. His research is part of a global effort to make a Green Super Rice, a rice variety suitable for the diverse challenges of the future.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

Will cancer ever become just another chronic but manageable disease? What can a squirrel biologist teach us about treating cancer?

In this episode, Marty and Art talk with Joel Brown about how to contain cancer using basic ideas from ecology and evolution. To Joel, cells in tumors are like organisms in ecosystems, and fighting cancer means using what we know about species in nature to tilt the playing field against the worst kinds of cancer cells. He and his team at the Moffit Cancer Research Center in Tampa, Florida, are starting to have some remarkable success treating different kinds of cancer.

We interviewed Joel in front of a live audience at Circa 1949 in Tampa, FL—our first live event!

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 Arizona State University. They discuss how life might have arisen on Earth and why biologists and physicists should work together to find a theory of life.

Her ideas could help decide what to do about artificial intelligence (SPOILER: The robots will take over, but it’s going to be OK). They might also help us find life on other planets.

Is there a constant battle between our immune system and pathogens? Does the fighting ever end? Does the immune system do more than just provide defense against pathogens? 

On this episode, Art and Marty talk to Fred Tauber, a professor emeritus of medicine and philosophy at Boston University, about how the immune system does more than just protect our bodies from pathogens. Fred has published a number of books on immunity and philosophy. In his most recent book, "Immunity: The Evolution of an Idea", he explores the ideas discussed in this episode in greater detail.

Today we’re replaying of our discussion with science writer David Quammen.

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 wildlife to humans. Now, we’re seeing that scenario play out in a big way with the coronavirus pandemic.

In May, he wrote an article in the New Yorker arguing that the U.S. has one of the worse coronavirus outbreaks in the world because it failed to learn from previous pandemics. You should definitely check out both books, and his recent article. 

Photo: Ronan Donovan

Happy holidays from the Big Biology team! As a bonus episode this week, we are sharing Art's recent interview with James Fodor on The Science of Everything podcast. Art and James discuss various topics in evolution and genetics, covering material that spans years of Big Bio conversations.

Enjoy, and see you next year!

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’s scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and artists who are trying to understand the deepest mysteries of the universe.

The show covers a huge range of topics, delving into social science or economics as often as biology. We really encourage you to check it out

On this podcast, host Michael Garfield and SFI President David Krakauer discuss a series of essays by SFI scientists that try to makes sense of what the world will look like after the coronavirus pandemic. 

You can read those essays here: https://www.santafe.edu/research/projects/transmission-sfi-insights-covid-19

How do biologists study the influence of heat on organisms and how can this be applied to the study of climate change? What impacts mountaineer survival at high altitudes?

On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Professor Emeritus at University of Washington and recently elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, Ray Huey. Ray is well known for his work on the thermal physiology of lizards, but has also worked broadly in physiology, ecology, and evolution. In our conversation with Ray, we first discuss his paper, an “Acynical Guide to Graduate School,” and it ongoing relevance to graduate students. We then talk about his career path into thermal biology, how he became interested in the science of mountaineering, and his philosophy for writing science. 

Art by Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

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 zebra finch, responds to prolonged and intense Australian heat waves. We also discussed the evolution of vertebrate endothermy and how various other animals have evolved to cope with changes in temperature.

This episode is sponsored by Journal of Experimental Biology. The journal is published by the Company of Biologists, a not-for-profit that has been supporting and inspiring the biological community since 1925. JEB is at the forefront of comparative physiology and biomechanics.

Photo: Christine Cooper

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 mosaic theory has helped us understand the evolution of novel traits. Rob says that plant-pollinator coevolution has had a huge and varied impact on human life and culture, well beyond its obvious effects on our agriculture. Coevolution between plants and their pollinators shaped our trade, our religious practices, and even the contents of our liquor cabinets.

Photo: Robert Raguso

What hidden life lies at the bottom of the deep ocean? How do so many species survive and even thrive with so little light and food and at such pressure?

In this episode, we talk to Helen Scales, a marine biologist, writer, and broadcaster who has written the essential guidebook to the deep ocean titled “The Brilliant Abyss”. On our way to the bottom of the sea, Helen recounted her journey from academia to writing and shared some of the lessons for others looking to dive into science communication. She also introduced us to some of her favorite species and their unique adaptations for surviving at extreme depths as well as several threats that the deep ocean faces. Technology has not only opened up this ecosystem to exploration but also to exploitation. Helen lays out the current state of ocean conservation and offers some hope and advice to those looking to protect the planet's largest habitat.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

Do animals dance to the beat? When is birdsong music for a bird? Humans hear music in everything, but what about other species?

On this episode we talk with Henkjan Honing, professor of music cognition at the University of Amsterdam, about the biology of musicality. Among diverse species, he and his collaborators now study how and why some animals perceive elements of music but others do not.

We also discuss the earliest known examples of human musical instruments and the possible adaptive value of music. All of these topics and more are covered in his recent book, The Evolving Animal Orchestra: In Search of What Makes Us Musical.

Additional sound effects for this episode came from www.zapsplat.com

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

How do small, founding populations establish and thrive in new places? What is biocontrol, and how is it carried out responsibly?

In this episode, we talk with Ruth Hufbauer, a Professor of Applied Evolutionary Ecology at Colorado State University about the ways that organisms successfully establish new populations in new places. Ruth uses lab experiments on Tribolium flour beetles to understand how evolution facilitates or impedes the founding of populations. In our conversation with Ruth, we discuss range expansions, species invasions, and biocontrol among other topics. Biocontrol is of particular interest to Ruth, as it can be an effective way to control pests, but also comes with some risks that the control agents themselves get out of control. We also explore the genetic paradox of invasion, and talk about many potential mechanisms that could help populations to quickly spread to a new place.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

Big Biology is a podcast that tells the stories of scientists tackling some of the biggest unanswered questions in biology.

Why do we drink alcohol? Are we just primates looking for a fix? Tune in to this episode to hear Art and Marty talk to Robert Dudley (not to be confused with the First Earl of Leicester of the same name). He is a renown expert in animal flight at UC Berkeley, but has recently begun studying drunken monkeys to understand our attraction to alcohol.

Why do we drink alcohol? Are we just primates looking for a fix? Tune in to this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Robert Dudley about the evolutionary origins of drinking alcohol.

What is the role of random, stochastic events in biology? How does our body react to such events? Does the presence of random events in our brains give us the illusion of freewill? Tune into this episode to hear Marty and Art talk to Denis Noble, an Emertis Professor at Oxford. Noble has written over 500 scientific articles and 11 books but may be most well known for developing the first mathematical model of heart cells in 1960. Recently, Noble published the book: “Dance to the Tune of Life,” where he notably discusses the necessity and importance of random events that occur within and between our genes, cells, tissues, and organs.

What is the role of random, stochastic events in biology? How does our body react to such events? Does the presence of random events in our brains give us the illusion of freewill? Tune into this episode to hear Marty and Art talk to Denis Noble, an Emertis Professor at Oxford. Noble has written over 500 scientific articles and 11 books but may be most well known for developing the first mathematical model of heart cells in 1960. Recently, Noble published the book: “Dance to the Tune of Life,” where he notably discusses the necessity and importance of random events that occur within and between our genes, cells, tissues, and organs.

Is there a limit to animal size? Could Godzilla actually exist? Tune into this episode to hear Art and Marty talk to Jon Harrison and Jim Brown. ​​​​​​​Jon Harrison (Arizona State University) studies the physical limits to insect body size and furthered our understanding of the giant insects that once roamed our planet. Luckily for us, his research indicates that Mothra may never exist. Jim Brown (University of New Mexico) famously put forth the universal quarter-power scaling law, which predicts how many ecological and evolutionary variables (including metabolism, life span, reproduction) of plants and animals change with body size. For example, his theory was able to explain the fact that all mammals average the same number of heartbeats (~ 1 billion) over their life time, regardless of how large they are (mice to elephants) or how long they live (3 years or 70 years)! Elephants hearts just beat really slow.

Is there a limit to animal size? Could Godzilla actually exist? Tune into this episode to hear Art and Marty talk to Jon Harrison and Jim Brown. ​​​​​​​Jon Harrison (Arizona State University) studies the physical limits to insect body size and furthered our understanding of the giant insects that once roamed our planet. Luckily for us, his research indicates that Mothra may never exist. Jim Brown (University of New Mexico) famously put forth the universal quarter-power scaling law, which predicts how many ecological and evolutionary variables (including metabolism, life span, reproduction) of plants and animals change with body size. For example, his theory was able to explain the fact that all mammals average the same number of heartbeats (~ 1 billion) over their life time, regardless of how large they are (mice to elephants) or how long they live (3 years or 70 years)! Elephants hearts just beat really slow.

Is there a role for basic research in our society? Do scientists studying animals waste tax-payer money? How does learning about evolutionary biology benefit humans? Tune in to this episode to hear science journalist and writer Carl Zimmer talk about the importance of basic research and the future of biology.

Is there a role for basic research in our society? Do scientists studying animals waste tax-payer money? How does learning about evolutionary biology benefit humans? Tune in to this episode to hear science journalist and writer Carl Zimmer talk about the importance of basic research and the future of biology.

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? Tune into this podcast to hear Marty and Art talk to Barbara Han about how we track infectious diseases and whether we'll ever be able to predict outbreaks.

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? Tune into this podcast to hear Marty and Art talk to Barbara Han about how we track infectious diseases and whether we'll ever be able to predict outbreaks.

How do mantis shrimp punch as fast as a bullet… underwater? How do they break open one of the toughest materials on earth? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Sheila Patek about how mantis shrimp pack such a powerful punch and why we should care. For example, mantis shrimp hammers can be used hundreds of thousands of times to break open the tough shells of snails and clams, and this research may help inspire lightweight, heavy duty military armor. Sheila studies the mechanics of ultrafast movements at Duke University. You may have seen her work featured recently by Science News (and numerous others) about the rules of animal fight clubs. But we can't talk about those.

How do mantis shrimp punch as fast as a bullet… underwater? How do they break open one of the toughest materials on earth? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Sheila Patek about how mantis shrimp pack such a powerful punch and why we should care. For example, mantis shrimp hammers can be used hundreds of thousands of times to break open the tough shells of snails and clams, and this research may help inspire lightweight, heavy duty military armor. Sheila studies the mechanics of ultrafast movements at Duke University. You may have seen her work featured recently by Science News (and numerous others) about the rules of animal fight clubs. But we can't talk about those.

How do mantis shrimp punch as fast as a bullet… underwater? How do they break open one of the toughest materials on earth? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Sheila Patek about how mantis shrimp pack such a powerful punch and why we should care. For example, mantis shrimp hammers can be used hundreds of thousands of times to break open the tough shells of snails and clams, and this research may help inspire lightweight, heavy duty military armor. Sheila studies the mechanics of ultrafast movements at Duke University. You may have seen her work featured recently by Science News (and numerous others) about the rules of animal fight clubs. But we can't talk about those.

What is the connection between an organism's genes and its environment? Can the environment alter an organism's characteristics without altering its genetics? Can an organism alter its environment and change the course of its own evolution? Tune into this podcast to hear Marty and Art talk to Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy at CUNY-City College in New York, about how the environment can alter an organism's physical characteristics without altering its genetics, and how our ability to alter our physical environment may have altered the course of human evolution. Massimo began his career as an evolutionary biologist, and has published numerous scientific and philosophical journal articles and over 10 different books.

What is the connection between an organism's genes and its environment? Can the environment alter an organism's characteristics without altering its genetics? Can an organism alter its environment and change the course of its own evolution? Tune into this podcast to hear Marty and Art talk to Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of philosophy at CUNY-City College in New York, about how the environment can alter an organism's physical characteristics without altering its genetics, and how our ability to alter our physical environment may have altered the course of human evolution. Massimo began his career as an evolutionary biologist, and has published numerous scientific and philosophical journal articles and over 10 different books.

Is there a constant battle between our immune system and pathogens? Does the fighting ever end? Does the immune system do more than just provide defense against pathogens? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Fred Tauber, a professor emeritus of medicine and philosophy at Boston University, about how the immune system does more than just protect our bodies from pathogens. Fred has published a number of books on immunity and philosophy. Including his most recent book, "Immunity: the Evolution of an Idea," where he explores the ideas he discusses here in greater detail.

Is there a constant battle between our immune system and pathogens? Does the fighting ever end? Does the immune system do more than just provide defense against pathogens? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk to Fred Tauber, a professor emeritus of medicine and philosophy at Boston University, about how the immune system does more than just protect our bodies from pathogens. Fred has published a number of books on immunity and philosophy. Including his most recent book, "Immunity: the Evolution of an Idea," where he explores the ideas he discusses here in greater detail.

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 Arizona State University. They discuss how life might have arisen on Earth and why biologists and physicists should work together to find a theory of life. Her ideas could help decide what to do about artificial intelligence (SPOILER: The robots will take over, but it’s going to be OK). They might also help us find life on other planets.

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 Arizona State University. They discuss how life might have arisen on Earth and why biologists and physicists should work together to find a theory of life. Her ideas could help decide what to do about artificial intelligence (SPOILER: The robots will take over, but it’s going to be OK). They might also help us find life on other planets.

How has the Tree of Life changed since Darwin? How do genes jump from one species to another? Why do we have viral genes in our DNA? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk with David Quammen about his new book “The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life.” In this podcast, they discuss how recent advances in genetics has changed our way of thinking about evolution and the relatedness of plants, animals, and microbes. They also discuss David's methods to his madness as he chooses the topics for each of his books. David is an award winning science writer and journalist. He has published over 15 books and written numerous articles for National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times Book Review.

Why do some animals have weird genitalia? Why is there conflict between males and females when it comes to producing offspring? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk with Patty Brennan about how sex in the animal kingdom is not always about love and cooperation; often it's also about conflict. And, this conflict can lead to some pretty crazy genitalia. Patty is an evolutionary biologist at Mount Holyoke College. Her research shows that the birds and the bees aren't so simple for the birds (or, as it turns out, for most other animals). Follow Patty on Twitter: @sexinnature

Why do some animals have weird genitalia? Why is there conflict between males and females when it comes to producing offspring? Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk with Patty Brennan about how sex in the animal kingdom is not always about love and cooperation; often it's also about conflict. And, this conflict can lead to some pretty crazy genitalia. Patty is an evolutionary biologist at Mount Holyoke College. Her research shows that the birds and the bees aren't so simple for the birds (or, as it turns out, for most other animals). Follow Patty on Twitter: @sexinnature

Will cancer ever become just another chronic but manageable disease? What can a squirrel biologist teach us about treating cancer? In this episode, Marty and Art talk with Joel Brown about how to contain cancer using basic ideas from ecology and evolution. To Joel, cells in tumors are like organisms in ecosystems, and fighting cancer means using what we know about species in nature to tilt the playing field against the worst kinds of cancer cells. He and his team at the Moffit Cancer Research Center in Tampa, Florida, are starting to have some remarkable success treating different kinds of cancer. We interviewed Joel in front of a live audience at Circa 1949 in Tampa, FL—our first live event! We had a great time interacting with the audience and plan to do more events like this in the next few months. If you’d like to host a Big Biology event, please email us at info@bigbiology.org!

Do single genes cause variation in traits or are gene effects more complex than that? How do genes interact with one another, and how do those interactions alter the pace and direction of evolution? Do those interactions constrain or facilitate evolution? Tune in to hear Art and Marty talk with Mihaela Pavlicev about these questions and more! Mihaela is a geneticist at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she studies big new ideas about links between genes and traits.

Does plasticity always help organisms adapt? What happens if it doesn't? Could it speed up evolution Tune in to hear Art and Marty talk with evolutionary ecologist Cameron Ghalambor about the role of non-adaptive plasticity in evolution. Cam is a professor at Colorado State University who tackles these questions by studying guppies. We interviewed Cam at a bar in Tampa, FL during a conference for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

How is climate change affecting the distribution of animals? How will these changes in species distribution affect us? Tune in to hear Marty and Art talk with physiological ecologist Jenn Sunday about how climate change is affecting the distribution of life on Earth. Jenn is a professor at McGill University who attempts to answer these questions at a global scale.

What role does one part of the federal government, the National Science Foundation, play in biological research in the US? How will their new funding initiative help us discover Rules of Life? On this episode, Art and Marty talk with two NSF directors, Joanne Tornow. the head of the Biological Sciences directorate, and Arthur “Skip” Lupia, the head of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Science directorate. They talked with them about one of NSF’s Big Ideas. One Idea, called Rules of Life, challenges scientists to study some of the same ‘big’ questions that we’ve addressed on this podcast, including how genotypes become phenotypes. They also asked how an agency dedicated to advancing science operates within an executive branch that has publicly criticized some major scientific conclusions.

How did sex evolve? Why are there sexes at all? what are the evolutionary costs and benefits of sex? On this episode, Art and Marty talk with Hanna Kokko, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Zurich. Hanna studies the evolution of sex and the vast panoply of strategies that organisms use to reproduce. Check out this nice graphical illustration of her work on her website!

How can cicadas eat nothing but tree sap for 17 years? How do endosymbiotic relationships evolve? What do bacteria-insect symbioses teach us about the evolution of mitochondria and chloroplasts? On this episode, Art and Marty talk with John McCutcheon, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Montana. John studies symbioses between bacteria and cicadas—exploring what each partner provides for the other, how cicadas transmit bacteria to their offspring, and what the consequences are for the evolution of bacterial genomes (hint: they are extreme!). This research raises basic questions about what an individual even is.

How does our indoor, modern lifestyle affect our microbiome? How does this novel microbiome affect our health? On this episode, Marty and Art talk with Rob Dunn, an applied ecologist at North Carolina State University. Rob studies the organisms that we come into contact with every day, from the microbes in our bodies to the insects in our homes. Tune into this episode to hear Marty and Art talk to Rob about the crazy diversity of microbes on our skin and its importance in our health and our food. Many of the ideas we discuss are from Rob’s most recent book, Never Home Alone.

In this episode, we've taken a break from our regular format to answer some of your questions such as what's the chance of human-like intelligence on another planet and if we had the technology, what organism would we want to bring back, Jurassic Park style? Tune in to this episode to hear Marty and Art answer questions like these and what goes into making our podcast! Have a question you want answered? Reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter!

Why do some rove beetles look like ants? Why do living things evolve similar solutions to common problems? Is there predictability within the evolutionary process? On this episode, Art and Marty talk with Joe Parker, an entomologist at Caltech. Joe has been collecting beetles since the age of 16, when he first became amazed by their incredible diversity. He now focuses on rove beetles and studies their evolutionary relationship with ants to understand how different species converge upon similar traits.

Is intelligence similar in humans and dolphins? Do dolphins and whales have their own culture and language? How do they perceive the world around them? Janet Mann is a biologist at Georgetown University, where she studies how dolphins form social groups, use tools, and communicate with one another. Tune into this episode to hear Marty and Art talk to Janet about these topics and Janet’s book, Deep Thinkers: Inside the minds of whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

Season two of Big Biology starts on August 29. On this preview, Art and Marty talk about some of the guests they’ll be interviewing and some of the topics they’re most excited to discuss. This season we’ll be featuring scientists who study talking plants, consciousness and epigenetics, and much more! Hold on to your pipettes folks, Big Biology is back!

Why are animals loud and conspicuous when that increases their risk from predators? How does noise pollution affect mating behaviors? How can robots help biologists study complex topics such as sexual selection and mate choice? Gail Patricelli is a behavioral ecologist at UC Davis, where she studies how individual variation in animal signaling and communication affects mate choice and reproductive success. Gail uses robots to investigate the process of sexual selection in sage-grouse and other species with elaborate mating displays. Tune into this episode to hear Marty and Art talk to Gail about these topics and more!

Why hasn’t natural selection eliminated human diseases? Are bad feelings like anxiety and depression adaptive? Can we use evolutionary biology to improve medicine? Randy Nesse is a doctor and a scientist at Arizona State University who uses evolutionary biology to inform the practice of medicine. In his latest book, “Good Reasons for Bad Feelings,” he discusses how natural and sexual selection may have shaped our psychological and emotional lives. On this episode Art and Marty talk to Randy about evolutionary psychiatry.

What does neuroscience have to say about morality, politics, and cross-cultural communication? How are neurobiology and philosophy connected? Pat Churchland is a neurobiologist and philosopher at UC San Diego, where she has spent years studying connections between mind and brain. Tune into this episode to hear Marty and Art discuss these questions as well as Pat's new book "Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition."

How does a tiny insect migrate thousands of miles from Canada to Mexico each year? What does the decline of monarch butterflies tell us about the ecological health of our continent? How are scientists using gene editing to understand how insects have evolved to tolerate poisonous plants? Anurag Agrawal is a biologist at Cornell University who studies plant-insect interactions, including monarch butterflies. He is the author of a new book called "Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution.” On this episode, Art and Marty talk with Anurag about the incredible migration of the monarch butterfly, the recent decline in population and a fascinating study where scientists edited the genomes of fruit flies to make them resistant to a poisonous plant that monarchs eat.

Why did conventional thinking in aerodynamics fail to explain how insects fly? What can robots teach us about how insects do it? How do insect brains direct their incredible aerial feats and get around in the world? Michael Dickinson is a biologist at Caltech who uses robots to study how insects fly. More recently, he has focused on insect neurobiology and behavior. On this episode, Art and Marty talk with Michael about the mysteries of tiny insect flight, and how the presumably simple brains of such animals enable them to navigate sometimes vast distances.

How do new species form? How long does it take for evolution to happen? What can hybrids tell us about the process of speciation? On this episode we talk with Peter and Rosemary Grant, two Princeton biologists who spent decades studying finches on the Galapagos Islands. Their work on bird beaks provides some of the strongest evidence for how fast natural selection can occur and more recently the genes involved. Their newest work on hybridization could fundamentally change how we think about speciation in animals.

How important are pathways other than DNA for transmitting traits from one generation to the next? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk to neuroscientist Frances Champagne from the University of Texas at Austin. Using rodents, Frances studies how early-life experiences affect epigenetic marks and how those marks are passed from one generation to the next. We asked her how those marks influence rat behaviors, why this mechanism alters modern evolutionary theory, and whether the growing interest in epigenetics is vindicating Lamarck’s old ideas about the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

What can direct-to-consumer genetic companies tell us about our health and ancestry? How do scientists figure out which genes affect particular traits? Is Art related to a Nigerian prince? Is Marty a Neanderthal? On this episode of Big Biology we talk with Samantha Esselmann and Ruth Tennen, product scientists at 23andMe, about how the company uses its massive trove of data to help people learn about the genetics of their ancestry and health. We talk about the accuracy of results and what the numbers in their reports say about us. Samantha and Ruth work closely with 23andMe’s population geneticists and content writers to develop engaging scientific content for 23andMe's health reports and educational initiatives. Samantha has a PhD in Neuroscience from UCSF. Ruth got her PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford and served as a science policy fellow at the State Department.

Make a donation to Big Biology through Patreon at Patreon.com/bigbio or at bigbiology.org

If natural selection is constantly ridding lineages of detrimental traits, why do all organisms wear down with age? Why does restricting the diet slow down the aging process? On this episode of Big Biology we talk with Jenny Regan and Dan Nussey, scientists at the University of Edinburgh who study why some organisms age at different rates and what phenotypic plasticity might have to do with this with variation. We discuss how aging happens, why species vary, and some of the major theories scientists use to explain it. We also discuss a paper that Jenny and Dan recently published in Functional Ecology, which proposes an evolutionary explanation for the life-extending effects of diet restriction. Their idea is that mechanisms that evolved to coordinate phenotypically plastic responses ultimately underpin aging. Read Jenny and Dan’s recently published Functional Ecology paper that describes why diet restriction has anti-aging effects.

How is declining biodiversity affecting the occurrence and spread of Lyme disease? Is there a way to reduce the transmission of tick-borne diseases using ecological approaches? On this episode of Big Biology we talk with Felicia Keesing and Rick Ostfeld, two disease ecologists working at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York. Felicia is a professor at Bard College, and Rick is a staff scientist at the Cary Institute. They study the ecology of tick-borne illnesses including a remarkable phenomenon called the dilution effect. In front of a live audience, we discussed the dilution effect, a term Felicia and Rick coined 20 years ago that is based on their study of ticks, mice and the causative agent of Lyme disease, a bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi. White-footed mice, which are common in the forests of the eastern and central U.S., are especially good at carrying Borrelia and are often responsible for passing it on to ticks. Felicia and Rick observed that biodiverse ecosystems tend to have fewer infected ticks and hence lower rates of Lyme infection. In other words, high host diversity dilutes the risk of disease.

What is Maxwell's demon, and what is its role in biology? How do molecular demons underpin life? Does life really defy entropy? On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Paul Davies, a cosmologist at Arizona State University and the Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. His recent book, "The Demon in the Machine," tackles Schrodinger's big question "What is life?," arguing that information is the key that distinguishes living from non-living things. You can learn more about Paul’s book as well as his other work on the role of information in biology via our website: bigbiology.org.

At what levels does causation happen in biology? Are metaphors useful for understanding biology?

In this episode, we talk with Phil Ball, a science writer who was also an editor for the journal Nature for over 20 years. Phil has written over 25 books, but our conversation focuses on his most recent: “How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology.” In the book, Phil covers a wide-range of topics from cells to proteins to biological agency, and makes the argument that traditional ideas and simplified metaphors in biology often don’t hold up. We talk with Phil about the concept of the selfish gene and unpack what it actually means and when it’s useful. Then we dive into the paradox of how multicellular organisms are composed of multiple levels of agency, yet are complex agents themselves. Phil also discusses the biomedical implications of thinking about cancer as one in many possible states that cells can inhabit across a landscape.

Art by Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

How has evolutionary biology evolved over time? What does it take to study evolution in natural populations?

On this episode, we talk with Erik Svensson, an evolutionary biologist at Lund University, Sweden. Historically, evolutionary theory has focused largely on population and quantitative genetics, but the complexity of interactions between genetic variation, organisms, and their environments poses challenges to testing the theory in nature. In a recent perspective, Erik revisits a landmark 1983 paper by Russ Lande and Steven Arnold, “The measurement of selection on correlated characters,” that fundamentally altered how evolutionary biologists study evolution in natural populations. Erik digs into that transition and into the ongoing challenges of studying evolution in the wild. Yet, some biologists argue that such approaches fail to capture phenomena such as phenotypic plasticity, niche construction and epigenetic inheritance, and have called for an even broader update to evolutionary theory. We discuss whether it will be possible to develop a single cohesive theory of life, drawing from Erik’s research and from our own conversations with past guests.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

How do living things exert agency in a world of strict physical and chemical laws? Do humans have free will? 

In this episode, we talk with Kevin Mitchell, an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. The question of free will has been debated for decades by thinkers in physics, philosophy, psychology, and, more recently, biology. In his new book, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will, Kevin argues that agency is a fundamental characteristic of living systems and is essential for survival. In the episode, we discuss how agency emerges despite constraints imposed by basic physical and chemical principles, and how agency confers on organisms the power to shape both themselves and their environments. We also discuss practical approaches to studying agency by leveraging new technologies and by seeing through underlying assumptions and traditional reductionism. 

Cover Art: Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on our website.

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 transformed by exciting new fossil finds and new DNA sequence data. We talk with Kate about the biggest news, the luxuriant evolutionary bush from which our ancestors emerged in Africa, and her favorite fossil species.

Episode art: Comparison of Modern Human and Neanderthal skulls from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History via Wikimedia Commons. hairymuseummatt (original photo), DrMikeBaxter (derivative work) (CC BY-SA 2.0)"

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, the best way to control its spread and strategies to avoid the next pandemic. Andy emphasizes that we shouldn’t blame wildlife for the coronavirus outbreak. It’s human behavior that led to this problem, and it’s human behavior that’s going to have to change to avoid the next ones. This episode is dedicated to Robert May,

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 1960s, Tony has studied the bottom-up and top-down processes that regulate wildlife populations in the Serengeti. We talk about how he discovered the major rules of regulation, the unique geography and climate of the Serengeti, the major forces driving wildebeests on epic annual migrations, and the roles that elephants play in stabilizing ecosystems into alternative stable states. We also talk with Tony about the controversial topic of rewilding degraded ecosystems. Tony argues that effective strategies for rewilding emerge only from understanding the fundamental processes that shape ecosystems in the first place.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

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 evolution of sensory systems and cognition in insects. Lars studies how bumblebees and other insects solve complex problems, and his results show unequivocally that they are incredibly flexible and creative. They clearly are not organic robots.

In Lars’s experiments, bees learn how to roll balls onto targets by watching other bees, they secure rewards by using tools, and they even plan for the future and store representations of objects in their minds. This last trait many scientists thought was restricted just to vertebrates.

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 talked with Greta about the function of venom, how it’s evolved throughout the tree of life, and the surprising role horizontal gene transfer--the idea that genes can jump sideways from one species into another--may have played in the origins of spider venom. Also, we get her candid thoughts on some cult spider horror flicks. We also cover her 2018 paper on venom protein evolution, which you can find here

Podcast art: Rosa Pineda

On this episode, we talk with Alina Chan, postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and co-author with Matt Ridley of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 could have plausibly jumped into humans in Wuhan via one of two paths. The first is zoonotic transfer from wild bats to humans, possibly via an intermediate animal host. The second is some kind of lab accident: researchers working on a SARS-CoV-2-like virus accidentally became infected with it and then transmitted it to others in Wuhan. Although early discussions among virologists reached the consensus that the origin was almost surely zoonotic, more recent discussions have started to take the lab-leak theory seriously. Unfortunately, we still lack conclusive evidence in support of either hypothesis. And, as public leaders have co-opted the investigation for nonscientific reasons, the subject of COVID’s origin has become practically taboo.

Alina’s approach is to “follow the data,” leaving no stone unturned, and we believe that it is our responsibility as scientists to do the same. We talk to Alina about her book, as well as the many new things that have been revealed about COVID’s origins since its 2021 publication. Towards the end of the chat, we discuss the implications of what we’ve learned about SARS-CoV-2 for how we should prepare for and deal with future pandemics.

We hope that this episode inspires you to seek the best possible explanation of COVID origins. Please write to info@bigbiology.org and tell us what you think, and share with friends and family. 

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

What happens when potential fraud is detected in research papers on major medical issues?

In this episode, we talk to Charles Piller, an investigative journalist who published a shocking story in Science magazine in July this year laying out compelling evidence for misconduct in multiple journal articles on Alzheimer’s disease. This misconduct appears to have occurred in recent papers involving the experimental drug, simulfilam, as well as older, foundational papers in Alzheimer’s research.

Charles’s story focuses on the sleuthing of Matthew Schrag, a neuroscientist and physician at Vanderbilt University who studies Alzheimer’s disease himself. In an extensive (even heroic) effort, Schrag identified over 100 potentially manipulated images in multiple major research papers. We talk with Charles about the consequences of those seemingly fraudulent images for the field and for public trust in science. We also talk about the potential consequences for whistleblowers like Schrag, and what journals and funding agencies are doing to support integrity in basic research.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

What is eco-evo-devo? How can ants help us understand the evolution of development?

There are 20 quadrillion ants in the world, and they come in lots of different shapes and sizes. We even see big differences within colonies, like ants in the genus Pheidole which have different castes: workers, soldiers, and, in some species, super soldiers. Super soldiers are the muscle-y brutes of the ant world that grow huge heads to defend the colony and attack large food items, like other insects. This variation is all due to developmental plasticity – the same ant genotype produces distinct phenotypes depending on the environment of their early lives.

On this episode, we talk with Rajee Rajakumar, a professor at the University of Ottawa, who studies Pheidole ants to understand the interactions between their genes, their developmental environments, and their phenotypes. Rajee is also a HUGE ant fan! We talk with him about his 2018 paper in Nature about the mysterious organs that control these differences in development, and amazingly, how these organs could be socially regulated via pheromones.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

We have finished Season 6 of Big Biology. Learn more about the future of the podcast.

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 on juncos in North America. We discuss Ellen’s early research on how testosterone modulates life history characteristics of male juncos. We also discuss her more recent work on bird microbiomes and their roles in bird olfaction and mating, and the physiological underpinnings of migratory behaviors. Finally, we talk about some big ideas about the philosophy of doing biology -- including the value of building scientific efforts around model versus natural systems, paths to integration in biology, and how to mentor students effectively.

Why are tropical mountain passes ‘higher’ than temperate ones? Why do some organisms regulate their temperature better than others, and what effect does this have on evolution?

On this episode, we talk with Martha Muñoz, a professor in Yale’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. We frame the chat in terms of two big ideas in thermal physiology – Janzen’s hypothesis and the Bogert Effect. Dan Janzen famously predicted that tropical ectotherms, with their relatively narrow thermal performance curves, would have a harder time moving up and over cold mountain passes. For organisms that rely on the environment to regulate their body temperatures, mountain passes appear higher in the tropics. These effectively higher mountains should lead to greater isolation of local populations and potentially greater rates of speciation because dispersal becomes more difficult. Charles Bogert focused on interactions between behavior and thermal evolution in ectotherms. He suggested that species with better capacity for behavioral thermoregulation would evolve more slowly – because thermoregulation shields thermal traits from the brunt of strong selection. We talk with Martha about these two ideas, and about how her work on Anolis lizards illustrates them.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

What makes a pest? Why are some animals revered in one culture and vilified in another? How do our ways of life bring us into conflict versus companionship, and what do these interactions mean for us and them?

Rats, squirrels, coyotes, pigeons...often, we view animals like these as pests. We usually don't like them, even try to get rid of them…but what makes a species a pest? On this episode, we talk with Bethany Brookshire about her new book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Bethany is a science journalist interested in human-animal conflict, and in the book, she tells the story of how both historical and cultural context explains why the same animal species can be viewed as a friend or foe. 

Bethany is also the host of the podcast Science for the People - check them out!

Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

What do plants, animals and even river systems have in common?

Branching networks are a universal element of life on Earth. Networks of veins, roots, xylem, phloem, and nerves – they all have large components that branch, usually repeatedly, into smaller and smaller components. The networks transport energy, materials, and information throughout the bodies in which they occur.

Our guest today, Van Savage, is a professor in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the department of Biomathematics at UCLA. We chat with Van about universal features of branched networks. We discuss how these networks are space filling and how their evolved structures facilitate rapid and energy-efficient transport. We also discuss why networks are fractals – branching structures that are self-similar across scales. You’ve seen the fractal nature of networks if you’ve noticed similarities between branching patterns of rivulets on a muddy bank and river connections viewed from a jet at 20,000 feet. We also discuss how differences in networks among taxa arise from the materials they transport. At the end of the conversation, Van explains how network theory illuminates what we know about metabolic scaling and how understanding branching can improve everything from artificial hearts to urban planning.

Cover art: Keating Shahmehri

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, Cassandra's lab has been working on oskar, a novel and highly conserved gene that is indispensable for giving insect cells the ability to become sperm or eggs. She and others have found that Oskar effectively acts like a magnet in developing insect cells, keeping together molecules critical to transformation of undifferentiated cells into functional germ cells. Bizarrely, this really important gene is thought to have evolved partly through horizontal gene transfer between insects and particular bacteria. Since then, oskar has also come to have many other functions, including for nerve cell development, even though much of its history was in species without nervous systems. Cassandra thinks that genes like these with complex histories and pleiotropic effects might be very common in living systems, much more than longstanding one gene-one phenotype thinking would lead us to expect.

Photo: Hannah Davis