Biopedia – Details, episodes & analysis

Back to talking about the impacts of climate change, and this time it's something pretty fundamental that's being impacted- the length of a day...

Sources for this episode:

• Agnew, D. C. (2024), A global timekeeping problem postponed by global warming. Nature 628: 333-336.
• Mitchell, R. N. and Kirscher, U. (2023), Mid-Proterozoic day length stalled by tidal resonance. Nature Geoscience 16: 567-569.
• Scaife, A. A., Hermanson, L., van Niekerk, A., Andrews, M., Baldwin, M. P., Belcher, S., Bett, P., Comer, R. E., Dunstone, N. J., Geen, R., Hardiman, S. C., Ineson, S., Knight, J., Nie, Y., Ren, H.-L. and Smith, D. (2024), Long-range predictability of extratropical climate and the length of day. Nature Geoscience 15: 789-793.
• Author unknown, BBC (2011), Why the Moon is getting further away from Earth (online) (Accessed 30/04/2024).

The record for the tallest tree is a sequoia that is just over 116 metres tall. Would this be different on other planets? Find out in today's episode- plus an appearance from the transpiration stream and transpiration.

Sources for this episode:

• Cox, B. and Cohen, A. (2013), Wonders of Life. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
• Harberle, R. M. (2015), SOLAR SYSTEM/SUN, ATMOSPHERES, EVOLUTION OF ATMOSPHERES | Planetary Atmospheres: Mars. Chapter in: Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences (2nd edition): p. 168-177.
• Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Nazari-Sharabian, M., Aghababaei, M., Karakouzian, M. and Karami, M. (2020), Water on Mars- A Literature Review. Galaxies 8(2): 40.
• Owen, T., Biemann, K., Rushneck, D. R., Biller, J. E., Howarth, D. W. and Lafleur, A. L. (1977), The Composition of the Atmosphere at the Surface of Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research 82(28): 4635-4639.
• Author unknown, Guiness World Records (date unknown), Tallest tree living (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).
• Author unknown, NASA (date unknown), Mars Facts (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Atmospheric pressure (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).

Returning to the idea of discussing biological thought in other cultures and/or times, today's topic is the Four Humours. This is an ancient idea of how the body worked coming from the thinkers of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Sources for this episode:

• Jouanna, J. (2012), Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen: Selected Papers. Leiden: BRILL.
• Stelmack, R. M. and Stalikas, A. (1991), Galen and the Humour Theory of Temperament. Personality and Individual Differences 12(3): 255-263.
• Thorndike, L. (1922), Galen: The Man and His Times. The Scientific Monthly 14(1): 83-93.

Killer whales are an icon of the world's oceans. However, genetic studies show that they haven't always been doing so well- especially during the last Ice Age. What's the story? And what relevance does the millennia-old plight of the orca have today? On the podcast today, we're going to use a genetic study from 2014 to explore just that.

Sources for this episode:

• Moura, A. E. et al (2014), Killer Whale Nuclear Genome and mtDNA Reveal Widespread Population Bottleneck during the Last Glacial Maximum. Molecular Biology and Evolution 31(5): 1121- 1131.
• General dates for some of the geological epochs discussed are widely available and can be found at sources such as Wikipedia.

A small housekeeping note: the lamellipodium episode is taking longer than expected and so has had to be pushed back a bit until November 25th (episode 10).

On the podcast today, we cover the concept of localised mRNA, which can be relevant to cell polarity.

Sources for this episode:

• Martin, K. C. And Ephrussi, A. (2009), mRNA Localisation: Gene Expression in the Spatial Dimension. Cell 136: 719- 730.

Antibiotic resistance we’ve all heard of by now, but what about antibiotic persistence? Join us as we explore the phenomenon of persistence, which allows bacterial infections to reappear even after antibiotic treatment. And all while being genetically identical to their susceptible neighbours!

Sources for this episode: 1) Balaban, N. Q., Helanie, S., Lewis, K., Ackermann, M., Aldridge, B., Andersson, D. I., Brynildsen, M. P., Bumann, D., Camilli, A., Collins, J. J., Dehio, C., Fortune, S., Ghigo, J.-M., Hardt, W.-D., Harms, A., Heinemann, M., Hung, D. T., Jenal, U., Levin, B. R., Michiels, J., Storz, G., Tan, M.-W., Tenson, T., Van Melderen, L., Zinkernagel, A. (2019), Definitions and guidelines for research on antibiotic persistence. Nature Reviews 17: 441- 448. 2) Fisher, R. A., Gollan, B. and Helanie, S. (2017), Persistent bacterial infections and persister cells. Nature Reviews Microbiology 15: 453- 464. 3) Wiley, J. M., Sherwood, L. M. and Woolverton, C. J. (2017), Prescott’s microbiology, 10th edition (International Edition), New York, McGraw-Hill Education. 4) Some of the discussion is based on my previous education on the topic.

It is common knowledge that bees as a whole are declining as a result of climate change, although bee decline as a larger topic is not in itself the subject of today's episode. But what about individual species? On the podcast today, we cover a 2019 study which predicted that the Australian small carpenter bee, Ceratina australensis, might go against this trend....

Sources for this episode:

• Breeze, T. D., Roberts, S. P. M. and Potts, S. G. (2012), The Decline of England's Bees: Policy Review and Recommendations (University of Reading). Available at: Friends of the Earth (published 2017, online) [Accessed 09/09/2021].
• Dew, R. N., Silva, D. P. And Rehan, S. M. (2019), Range expansion of an already widespread bee under climate change. Global Ecology and Conservation 17 (2019): e00584.
• Author unknown, Friends of the Earth (2017), What are the causes of bee decline? (online) [Accessed 09/09/2021].

This episode builds on content covered in episode 3, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t listened to it already. This week, we explore an example of the GTPase content we discussed last time. Specifically, we look at the diploid mating of baker’s yeast in stressful environments.

Source for this episode:

• Alberts, Johnson, Lewis Raff, Roberts and Walter (2008), Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition. Abingdon: Garland Science, Taylor and Francis Group LLC.

On the podcast today, we scratch the surface of cell polarity and how enzymes known as GTPases are linked to this process.

Sources for this episode:

• Alberts, Johnson, Lewis Raff, Roberts and Walter (2008), Molecular Biology of the Cell, Fifth Edition, Abingdon: Garland Science, Taylor and Francis Group LLC.
• Thain, M. And Hickman, M. (2014), The Penguin Dictionary of Biology, 11th edition. London: Penguin Publishing Group.
• Some of the discussion is also based on my studies.

It’s genetics time! Back in 2012, a skeleton was unearthed in a car park in Leicester, which was later positively identified as Richard III of England. But how? Join us as we delve into how genetics cracked a 500 year old case wide open...

Sources for this episode:

• King, T. E., Fortes, G. G., Balaresque, P. Thomas, M. G., Balding, D., Delser, P. M., Neumann, R., Parson, W., Knapp, M., Walsh, S., Tonasso, L., Holt, J., Kayser, M., Appleby, J., Forster, P., Ekserdjian, D., Hofreiter, M., and Schürer, K. (2014), Identification of the remains of King Richard III. Nature Communications 5:5631.
• Shakespeare, W., Richard The Third (play), Act 1, Scene 3.
• Author unknown, BBC news (2015), Richard III: Leicester Cathedral reburial service for king (online) [Accessed 29/10/2020].
• Author unknown, BBC (2018), 'The discovery of Richard III's skeleton changed my life' (online) [Accessed 29/10/2020].