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].

Welcome to our first proper episode! This week, we tackle the problem of biofilms- an extracellular matrix which can protect the species inside it and is a source of frustration to doctors and dentists alike.

Sources for this episode:

• Lopez, D. Vlamakis, H. And Kolter, R. (2010), Biofilms. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology 2(7): a000398.
• Short, F. L., Murdoch, S. L. And Ryan, R. P. (2014), Polybacterial human disease: the ills of social networking.
• Thain, M. And Hickman, M. (2014), The Penguin Dictionary of Biology, 11th edition. London: Penguin Publishing Group.
• Willey, J. M., Sherwood, L. M. And Woolverton, C. J. (2017), Prescott’s Microbiology, 10th edition (International Edition). New York, McGraw-Hill Education.

Welcome to Biopedia! This episode is a bit of an explanation as to who I am, what the podcast is all about and some caveats about my schedule.

Welcome to Biopedia! This is a podcast that aims to go through various aspects of biology one at a time for listeners of all levels. Enjoy the show!

There are two species of dormice in the UK. Today, we will be exploring the legislation around dormice, as well as the study which first pioneered the use of nest boxes for their study.

Sources for this episode:

• Chanin, P. and Gubert, L. (2011), Surveying hazel dormice (Muscardinus avellinarius) with tubes and boxes: a comparison. Mammal Notes.
• Morris, P. A., Bright, P. W. and Woods, D. (1990), Use of Nestboxes by the Dormouse Muscardinus avellinarius. Biological Conservation 51: 1-13.
• Author unknown (2007), Dormouse: European Protected Species. Natural England Species Information Note SIN005.
• Author unknown, GOV.UK (date unknown), Hazel dormice: survey or research class licence (CL10a) (online) (Accessed c.02/04/2024).
• Author unknown, People's trust for endangered species (date unknown), Hazel dormouse disturbance licence (online) (Accessed c.02/04/2024).

Today, two terms which, in a sense, extend our discussion of twins from episode 27.

Sources for this episode:

• Blickstein, I. (2003), Superfecundation and superfetation: lessons from the past on early human development. The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine 14(4): 217-219.
• Segal, N. L. and Nedelec, J. L. (2021), Heteropaternal twinning: Unique case of opposite-sex twins with different fathers. Forensic Science International 327: 110948.
• Thain, M. and Hickman, M. (2004), The Penguin Dictionary of Biology (11th edition). London: the Penguin Group.

Skeletons are on the menu today- and the different kinds organisms can have.

Sources for this episode:

• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• Clennett, C., Locke, J. and Jackson, T. (editorial consultants) (2023), How Biology Works. LonondM Darling Kindersley Ltd.
• Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Schmidt-Nielsen, K. (1997), Animal Physiology: Adaptation and environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bee declines feature prominently in the news today. But what are the causes for it? Using the example of the UK, we follow the Woodland Trust to explore this issue. Plus, we also discuss two papers which hold differing viewpoints about the pollination crisis generally...

Sources for this episode:

• Briggs, H., BBC News (2019), Bees: Many British pollinating insects in decline, study shows (online) (Accessed 05/03/2024).
• Engel, M. S., Rasmussen, C. and Gonzalez, V. H. (2021), Bees. In: Starr, C. K. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Insects. Springer Nature Switzerland.
• Ghazoul, J. (2005), Buzziness as usual? Questioning the global pollination crisis. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20(7): 367-373.
• Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Kennedy, P. J., Ford, S. M., Poidatz, J., Thiéry, D., & Osborne, J. L. (2018). Searching for nests of the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) using radio-telemetry. Communications Biology, 1, 88.
• Lima, C. G., Sofia Vaz, A., Honrado, J. P., Aranha, J., Crespo, N., & Vicente, J. R. (2022). The invasion by the Yellow-legged hornet: A systematic review. Journal for Nature Conservation, 67, 126173.
• Paxton, R. J. (2010), Does infection by Nosema ceranae cause “Colony Collapse Disorder” in honey bees (Apis mellifera)? Journal of Apicultural Research 49(1): 80-84.
• Rader, R., Bartomeus, I., Garibaldi, L. A. and Woyciechowski, M. (2015), Non-bee insects are important contributors to global crop pollination. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(1): 146-151.
• Renner, S. S. and Zohner, C. M. (2018), Climate Change and Phenological Mismatch in Trophic Interactions Among Plants, Insects and Vertebrates. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 49: 162-182.
• Takahashi, J., Okuyama, H., Kiyoshi, T., Takeuchi, T., & Martin, S. J. (2019). Origins of Vespa velutina hornets that recently invaded Iki Island, Japan and Jersey Island, UK. Mitochondrial DNA Part A, 30(3), 434–439.
• Van Engelsdorp, D., et al. (2009), Colony Collapse Disorder: A Descriptive Study. PLOS ONE 4(8): e6481.
• Varela, C. (2023), Why are bees important? And how you can help them (online) (Accessed 01/03/2023).
• Vogel, G. (2017), Where have all the insects gone? Science 356(6338): 576-579.
• Author unknown, Climate Action Tracker (date unknown), The CAT Thermometer (online) (Accessed 05/03/2024).

Time for a common ecological term to get the treatment it deserves. Today, we're exploring the biome. Not only that, but the term ecoregion is getting thrown in as an extra...

Sources for this episode:

• Clennett, C., Locke, J. and Jackson, T. (editorial consultants) (2023), How Biology Works. LonondM Darling Kindersley Ltd.
• Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Rundel, P. W., Arroyo, M. T. K., Cowling, R. M., Keeley, J. E., Lamont, B. B. and Vargas, P. (2016), Mediterranean Biomes: Evolution of Their Vegetation, Floras, and Climate. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 47: 383-407.
• Whittaker, R. J. and Fernández-Palacios, J. M. (2007), Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Climate change as a topic is a well-known one. However, we are going to be dissecting a paper published recently which deals with the potential economic impact of a warming world...

Sources for this episode:

• Ainsworth, E. A., Lemonnier, P. and Wedow, J. M. (2019), The influence of rising tropospheric carbon dioxide and ozone on planet productivity. Plant Biology 22 (Suppl. 1): 5-11.
• Balch, J. K., Abatzoglou, J. T., Joseph, M. B., Koontz, M. J., Mahood, A. L., McGlinchy, J., Cattau, M. E. and Williams, A. P. (2022), Warming weakens the night-time barrier to global fire. Nature 602: 442-448.
• Dytham, C. (2011), Choosing and Using Statistics (3rd edition). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Edmonds, D. A., Caldwell, R. L., Brondizio, E. S. and Siani, S. M. O. (2020), Coastal flooding will disproportionately impact people on river deltas. Nature Communications 11: 4741.
• Hughes, T. P., Kerry, J. T., et al. (2017), Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals. Nature 543: 373-377.
• IPCC (2018), Summary for Policymakers. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C: An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)].
• Jones, C., Lowe, J., Liddicoat, S. and Betts, R. (2009), Committed terrestrial ecosystem changes due to climate change. Nature Geoscience 2: 484-487.
• Mace, G. M. (2014), Whose conservation? Science 345(6204): 1558-1560.
• Short, J. R. (2013), Stress Testing the USA: Public Policy and Relation to Disaster Events (2nd edition). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland.
• Tol, R. S. J. (2018), The Economic Impacts of Climate Change. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 12(1): 4-25.
• Tol, R. S. J. (2024), A meta-analysis of the total economic impact of climate change. Energy Policy 185: 113922.
• UNFCCC (2023), Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement. Fifth Session, agenda item 4: First global stocktake.
• Author unknown, Metric Conversions (date unknown), Feet to Meters conversion: ft to m calculator (online). (Accessed 18/01/2024).
• Author unknown, University of Sussex (date unknown), Richard Tol (online). (Accessed 17/01/2024).

Today's episode is going to feature one of the later monarchs from the Hellenistic era- Mithridates VI of Pontus. This is because his practice of trying to make himself immune to poison- called mithridatism- is biologically relevant and and continues to be influential until the 18th century.

Sources for this episode:

• Jarcho, S. (1972), Medical Numismatic Notes, VII: Mithridates IV. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 48(8): 1059-1064.
• Kaberopoulos, D., Karamanou, M. and Androutsos, G. (2012), The art of medicine: The theriac in antiquity. The Lancet 379: 1942-1943.
• Karamanou, M., Androutsos, G., Hayes, A. W. and Tsatsakis, A. (2018), Toxicology in the Borgias period: The mystery of Cantarella poison. Toxicology Research and Application 2: 1-3.
• Valle, G., Stanislao, M., Facciorusso, A., Carmignani, M. and Volpe, A. R. (2010), Mithridates VI Eupator, father of the empirical toxicology. Clinical Toxicology 47(5): 433.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Antiochus III the Great (online) (Accessed 28/07/2023).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Demetrius I Soter (online) (Accessed 28/07/2023).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Laodice IV (online) (Accessed 28/07/2023).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Laodice VI (online) (Accessed 28/07/2023).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Mithridates VI Eupator (online) (Accessed 29/07/2023).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Seleucus II Callinicus (online) (Accessed 28/07/2023).

The Black Death in the 14th century is engrained in the popular consciousness. But how familiar is the first wave of the disease that happened in the 500s? In this episode, we explore what plague is, its evolution, strains and impact on the world of the 6th century according to Procopius.

Sources for this episode:

• Achtman, M., Zurth, K., Morelli, G., Torrea, G., Guiyoule, A. and Carniel, E. (1999), Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague, is a recently emerged clone of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96(24): 14043-14048.
• Dai, R., He, J., Zha, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, X., Gao, H., Yang, X., Li, J., Xin, Y., Wang, Y., Li, S., Jin, J., Zhang, Q., Bai, J., Peng, Y., Wu, H., Zhang, Q., Wei, B., Xu, J. and Li, W. (2021), A novel mechanism of streptomycin resistance in Yersinia pestis: Mutation in the rpsL gene. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15(4): e0009324.
• Dewing, H. B. (1960), Procopius in Seven Volumes. Volume VI: The Anecdota or Secret History. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.
• Dewing, H. B. (1961), Procopius in Seven Volumes. Volume II: History of the Wars: Books III and IV. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd.
• Dull, R. A., Southon, J. R., Kutterolf, S., Anchukaitis, K. J., Freundt, A., Wahl, D. B., Sheets, P., Amaroli, P., Hernandez, W., Wiemann, M. C. and Oppenheimer, C. (2019), Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal ‘mystery’ eruption of 539/40 CE. Quaternary Science Reviews 222: 105855.
• Dykhuizen, D. E. (2000), Yersinia pestis: An instant species? Trends in Microbiology 8(7): 296-298.
• Ke, Y., Chen, Z. and Yang, R. (2019), Yersinia pestis: mechanisms of entry into and resistance to the host cell. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology 3(106): 1-9.
• Kousoulis, A. A., Karamanou, M., Tsoucalas, G., Dimitriou, T. and Androutsos, G. (2012), Alexandre Yersin’s Explorations (1892-1894) in French Indochina before the Discovery of the Plague Bacillus. Acto Medico-Historica Adriatica 10(2): 303-310.
• Mikaty, G., Coullon, H., Fiette, L., Pizarro-Cerdá and Carniel, E. (2021), The invasive pathogen Yersinia pestis disrupts host blood vasculature to spread and provoke hemorrhages. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 15(10): e0009832.
• Mordechai, L., Eisenberg, M., Newfield, T. P., Izdebski, A., Kay, J. E. and Poinar, H. (2019), The Justinianic Plague: An Inconsequential Pandemic? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116(51): 25546-25554.
• Moseley, J. E. (1981), Travels of Alexandre Yersin: Letters of a Pastorian in Indochina, 1890-1894. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 24(4): 607-618.
• Norwich, J. J. (2013), A Short History of Byzantium. London: The Penguin Group.
• Procopius (1985), The Secret History (translated by Williamson, G. A.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
• Rogers, K., Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Yersinia pestis (online) (Accessed c.01/03/2024).
• Rosen, W. (2008), Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire & the Birth of Europe. London: Pimlico.
• Sarris, P. (2023), Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint. London: Basic Books UK.
• Author unknown, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (date unknown), Protect yourself from plague.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Plague of Justinian (online) (Accessed 01/03/2024).

1-2% of the world's population have red hair. So, we're giving the phenomenon its own episode! Today, we discuss the gene/protein that causes red hair, as well as its psychological and possible medical effects...

Sources for this episode:

• Bryant, NIH Research Matters (2021), Study finds link between red hair and pain threshold (online) (Accessed 12/01/2024).
• Gradwohl, S. C., Aranake, A., Abdallah, A. B., McNair, P., Lin, N., Fritz, B. A., Villafranca, A., Glick, D., Jacobsohn, E., Mashour, G. A. and Avidan, M. S. (2015), Intraoperative awareness risk, anesthetic sensitivity, and anesthetic management for patients with natural red hair: a matched cohort study. Canadian Journal of Anesthesia 62: 345 355.
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Science Daily (2021), Research reveals why redheads have different pain thresholds (online) (Accessed 12/01/2024).
• Regan, K. O. (2014), “Red hair in popular culture and the relationship with anxiety and depression”. Thesis submitted for University College, Cork.
• Rees, J. L. (2000), The Melanocortin 1 Receptor (MC1R): More Than Just Red Hair. Pigment Cell Research 13: 135-140.
• Robinson, K. C., Kemény, L. V., Fell, G. L., Hermann, A. L., Allouche J., Ding, W., Yekkirala, A., Hsiao, J. J., Su, M. Y., Theodosakis, N., Kozak, G., Takeuchi, Y., Shen, S., Berenyi, A., Mao, J., Woolf, C. J. and Fisher, D. E. (2021), Reduced MC4R signalling alters nociceptive thresholds associated with red hair. Science Advances 7: eabd1310.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Nociception (online) (Accessed 12/01/2024).
• Author unknown, Worldometer (date unknown), World Population Clock: 8.1 Billion People (LIVE, 2024) (online) (Accessed 11/01/2024).

We catch up with Darwin and see what exactly he got up to in the Empire of Brazil!

Sources for this episode:

• Cardoso, D., et al. (2020), Amazon plant diversity revealed by a taxonomically verified species list. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114(40): 10695-10700.
• Darwin, C. (1945), The Voyage of the Beagle. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
• Hubbell, S. P., He, F., Condit, R., Borda-de-Água, L., Kellner, J. and ter Steege, H. (2008), How many tree species are there in the Amazon and how many of them will go extinct? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(suppl. 1): 11498-11504.
• Martin, P. A. (1933), Slavery and Abolition in Brazil. The Hispanic American Historical Review 13(2): 151-196.
• Ray, J. L. (2009), The abolition of slavery and the end of international war. International Organization 43(3): 405-439.
• Ronque, M. U. V., Fourcassié, V. and Oliveira, P. S. (2018), Ecology and field biology of two dominant Camponotus ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Brazilian savannah. Journal of Natural History 52(3-4): 237-252.
• Author unknown, Metric Conversions (date unknown), Feet to Meters conversion: ft to m calculator (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Rainforest Trust (date unknown), Amazon Basin (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Our World in Data (date unknown), Average annual precipitation (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).
• Author unknown, United States Senate (date unknown), The Senate Passes the Thirteenth Amendment (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Porcupinefish (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).

You asked, I delivered! In a sequel to our discussion in episode 58, we're going to shine a spotlight on two more thinkers during the Islamic Golden Age. Along the way we'll also see connections with later thinkers and a cameo from episode 69...

Sources for this episode:

• Guerber, H. A. (1929), The Myths of Greece & Rome: Their Stories Signification and Origin. London: George G. Harrap & Company Ltd.
• Kaack, L. H. and Katul, G. G. (2013), Fifty years to prove Malthus right. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(11): 4161-4162.
• Malik, A. H., Ziermann, J. M. and Diogo, R. (2018), An untold story in biology: the historical continuity of evolutionary ideas of Muslim scholars from the 8th century to Darwin’s time. Journal of Biological Education 52(1): 3-17.
• Waterman, A. M. C. (1987), On the Malthusian Theory of Long Swings. The Canadian Journal of Economics 20(2): 257-270.
• Author unknown (1888), The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the original tongues: and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty’s special command. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), al-Biruni (online) (Accessed 11/01/2024).

Darwin Day is upon us for the fourth time! To celebrate, let's follow Charles Darwin on the first part of his famous voyage between late 1831 and early 1832. We'll see him pour over cuttlefish, travel with veterans of the Napoleonic Wars and arrive in a young Brazilian Empire... Sources for this episode: Bannerman, W. M., Lobban, R. A. and Shaw, C. S., Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), History of Cabo Verde (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024). Bethell, L. (1968), The Independence of Brazil and the Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade: Anglo-Brazilian Relations, 1822-1826. Journal of Latin American Studies 1(2): 115-147. Bieber, J. (2010), Imperial Brazil (1822-29). In: Holloway, T. H. (2010), A Companion to Latin American History. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Bunker, F. St. P., Brodie, J. A., Maggs, C. A. and Bunker, A. R. (2017), Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland (2nd edition). Plymouth: Wild Natural Press. Darwin, C. (1945), The Voyage of the Beagle. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. Diamond, J. (2007), Easter Island Revisited. Science 317(5845): 1692-1694. Jezierski, M. T., Smith, W. J. and Clegg, S. M. (2023), The island syndrome in birds. Journal of Biogeography 00: 1-16. Litchfield, H. (ed.) (1915), Emma Darwin: A Century of Family Letters (Vol. II). New York: D. Appleton and Company. Martin, P. A. (1921), Causes of the Collapse of the Brazilian Empire. The Hispanic American Historical Review 4(1): 4-48. Whittaker, R. J. and Fernández-Palacios, J.-M. (2007), Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Charles II of England (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024). Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Robert FitzRoy (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024). Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Salvador, Bahia (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024).

A series of 5000 flowers pressed in the 16th century near Bologna have given scientists an opportunity to see human impacts and the rise of alien species. All while giving us an excuse to touch on what the Columbian exchange actually is...

Sources for this episode:

• Anteric, I., Basic, Z., Vilovic, K., Kolic, K. and Andjelinovic, S. (2014), Which Theory for the Origin of Syphilis is True? Journal of Sexual Medicine 11: 3112-3118.
• Buldrini, F., Alessandrini, A., Mossetti, U., Muzzi, E., Pezzi, G., Soldano, A. and Nascimbene, J. (2023), Botanical memory: five centuries of floristic changes revealed by a Renaissance herbarium (Ulisse Aldrovandi, 1551-1586). Royal Society Open Science 10(11): 230866.
• Guerra, F. (1993), The European-American Exchange. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 15: 313-327.
• Hancock, J. F. (2023), Fifty Years Later- The Legacy of Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492”. Economic Botany 77(1): 82-102.
• Harper, K. N., Zuckerman, M. K., Harper, M. L., Kingston, J. D. and Armelagos, G. J. (2011), The Origin and Antiquity of Syphilis Revisited: An Appraisal of Old World Pre-Columbian Evidence for Treponemal Infection. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 54: 99-133.
• Lees, D., Lopez-Vaamonde, C., Augustin, S., Biodiversity Heritage Library, Field Museum et al. (2009), Cameraria ohridella Deschka & Dimic 1986. Encyclopedia of Life, MacArthur Foundation, Sloan Foundation. Ffhal-02824036.
• McCook, S. (2011), The neo-Columbian exchange: the second conquest of the Greater Caribbean, 1720-1930. Latin American Research Review: 46(S1): 11-31.
• Milliken, W., Walker, B. E., Howes, M.-J. R., Forest, F. and Lughadha, E. N. (2021), Plants used traditionally as antimalarials in Latin America: Mining the tree of life for potential new medicines. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 279: 114221.
• Sanz-Biset, J., Campos-de-la-Cruz, J., Epiquién-Rivera, M. A. and Cañigueral, S. (2009), A first survey on the medicinal plants of the Chazuta valley (Peruvian Amazon). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 122: 333-362.
• Stefanaki, A., Walter, T. and van Andel, T. (2022), Tracing the introduction history of the tulip that went wild (Tulipa sylvestris) in sixteenth-century Europe. Nature Scientific Reports 12: 9786.
• Weston, P., the Guardian (2023), ‘Inestimable importance’: 500-year-old cache of pressed flowers reveals new secrets (online) (Accessed 17/11/2023).

It takes our sun 220 million years to orbit around the middle of our home galaxy. But that kind of timescale can be difficult to picture. So, using the International Stratigraphy Chart as a guidance for what different time periods mean in terms of millions of years, let's zoom out to the scale of a galactic year and see what happened in Earth's prehistory one cycle ago, two and so on.

Sources for this episode:

• Bach, J. R. (2013), Paradigm paralysis in the management of neuromuscular disease. Journal of Personalized Medicine 11: 24-29.
• Bottjer, E. J. (2005), The Early Evolution of Animals. Scientific American 293(2): 42-47.
• Brusatte, S. L., Butler, R. J., Barrett, P. M., Carrion, M. T., Evans, D. C., Lloyd, G. T., Mannion, P. D., Norell, M. A., Peppe, D. J., Upchurch, P. and Williamson, T. E. (2015), The extinction of the dinosaurs. Biological Reviews 90: 628-642.
• Cameron, G. G. (1968), Zoroaster the Herdsman. Indo-Iranian Journal 10(4): 261-281.
• Clack, J. A. (2006), Devonian climate change, breathing, and the origin of the tetrapod stem group. Integrative and Comparative Biology 47(4): 510-523.
• Cohen, K. M., Finney, S. C., Gibbard, P. L. and Fan, J.-X. (2013; updated). The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204.
• Downs, J. P., Daeschler, E. B., Jenkins, F. A. and Shubin, N. H. (2008), The cranial endoskeleton of Tiktaalik roseae. Nature 455: 925-929.
• Ellery, A. (2003), Book Review: Impossible Extinction- Natural catastrophes and the supremacy of the microbial world. International Journal of Astrobiology 2(2): 153-154.
• Galway-Whitham, J. and Stringer, G. (2018), How did Homo sapiens evolve? Science 360(6395): 1296-1298.
• Hazen, R. M. (2010), How Old is Earth, and How Do We Know? Evolution: Education and Outreach 3: 198-205.
• Hess, F. L. (1925), The Age of the Earth. The Scientific Monthly 20(6): 597-602.
• Kemp, B. and Zink, A. (2012), Life in Ancient Egypt: Akhenaten, the Amarna Period and Tutankhamun. RCC Perspectives No. 3- Sickness, Hunger, War and Religion: Multidisciplinary Perspectives: 9-24.
• Kvĕt, R. (1991), Complete Periodical Geological Time Table. GeoJournal 24(4): 417-420.
• Kvĕt, R. (1995), On the Dependence of Life Evolution on Geotectonic Stages. GeoJournal 37(4): 413-417.
• Lemberg, J. B., Daeschler, E. B. and Shubin, N. H. (2021), The feeding system of Tiktaalik roseae: an intermediate between suction feeding and biting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118(7): e2016421118.
• MacIver, M. A., Schmitz, L., Mutan U., Murphey, T. D. and Mobley, C. D. (2020), Massive increase in visual range preceded the origin of terrestrial vertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: E2375-E2384.
• Meiri, S. (2022), Population sizes of T. rex cannot be precisely estimated. Frontiers of Biogeography 14(2): e53781.
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• Sereno, P. C. (1997), The Origin and Evolution of Dinosaurs. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 25: 435-489.
• Vandepoele, K., De Vos, W., Taylor, J. S., Meyer, A. and Van de Peer, Y. (2004), Major events in the genome evolution of vertebrates: Paranome age and size differ considerably between ray-finned fishes and land vertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101(6): 1638-1643.
• Vittinghof, F. (1985), Reviewed Work(s): The Roman Empire 27 B. C. - A. D. 476. A Study in Survival by Chester G. Starr. Gnomon 57 Bd., H. 6: 572-574.
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• Życiński, J. (2006), Ethics in medical technologies: The Roman Catholic viewpoint. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 13: 518-523.

Most people will have come across this term before, but what does it actually mean? Today, we'll be dissecting the terms microbiome and microbiota and looking at what can impact them.

Sources for this episode:

• Amon, P. and Sanderson, I. (2017), What is the microbiome? Archives of Disease in Childhood- Education and Practice 102-258-261.
• Cremon, C., Barbaro, M. R., Ventura, M. and Barbara, G. (2018), Pre- and probiotic overview. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 43: 87-92.
• Kim, H., Sitarik, A. R., Woodcroft, K., Johnson, C. C. and Woratti, E. (2019), Birth Mode, Breastfeeding, Pet Exposure and Antibiotic Use: Associations With the Gut Microbiome and Sensitization in Children. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports 19: 22.
• Mariat, D., Firmesse, O., Levenez, F., Guimarăes, V. D., Sokol, H., Doré, J., Corthier, G. and Furet, J.-P. (2009), The Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio of the human microbiota changes with age. BMC Microbiology 9:123.
• Rautava, S. (2016), Early microbial contact, the breast milk microbiome and child health. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 7(1): 5-14.
• Rees, T., Bosch, T. and Douglas, A. E. (2018), How the microbiome challenges our concept of self. PLoS Biology 16(2): e2005358.
• Sender, R., Fuchs, S. and Milo, R. (2016), Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body. PLoS Biology 14(8): e1002533.
• Tojo, R., Suárez, A., Clemente, M. G., de los Reyes-Gavilán, C. G., Margolles, A., Gueimonde, M. and Ruas-Madiedo, P. (2014), Intestinal microbiota in health and disease: Role of bifidobacteria in gut homeostasis. World Journal of Gastroenterology 20(41): 15163-15176.
• Vongsa, R., Hoffman, D., Shepard, K. and Koenig, D. (2019), Comparative study of vulva and abdominal skin microbiota of healthy females with high and average BMI. BMC Microbiology 19:16.
• Author unknown, NHS (date unknown), Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (online) (Accessed 16/11/2023).

Saint Helena is an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps most famous as the final residence of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814 and again briefly in 1815. However, there is also plenty of interesting ecology and anthropogenic impact to talk about. Join myself and my co-host on an old episode of Island Folk to find out more!

The episode can be found at the following link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yP66nlH0ReAaZUWETXEHp?si=e894e255600c4bc0

Hope you enjoy!

This episode discusses what it says on the tin- two different models of the pace at which evolution happens. Punctuated equilibrium comes to us courtesy of Niles Eldredge and Steve Gould in the 1970s. We won't do a deep dive on which model is considered correct in this episode. However, punctuated equilibrium was appropriated by creationists in the 1980s as this issue became political- leading us to a convenient tangent on what exactly creationist philosophy is.

Sources for this episode:

• Alters, B. J. (1999), What is Creationism? The American Biology Teacher 61(2): 103-106
• Beardsley, T. (1990), Punctuated Equilibrium. Scientific American 262(3): 36-41.Bino, G., Kingsford, R. T., Archer, M., Connolly, J. H., Day, J., Dias, K., Goldney, D., Gongora, J., Grant, T., Griffiths, J., Hawke, T., Klamt, M., Lunney, D., Mijangos, L., Munks, S., Sherwin, W., Serena, M., Temple-Smith, P., Thomas, J., Williams, G. and Whittington, C. (2019), The platypus: evolutionary history, biology, and an uncertain future. Journal of Mammology 100(2): 308-327.
• Bostock, G. (1987), Allegory and the Interpretation of the Bible in Origen. Literature and Theology 1(1): 39-53.
• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• Cohen, K. M., Finney, S. C., Gibbard, P. L. and Fan, J.-X. (2013; updated), The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204.
• Darwin 1859
• Davis, L. D. (1983), The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier.
• Delair, J. B. and Sarjeant, W. A. S. (2002), The earliest discoveries of dinosaurs: the records re-examined. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 113(3): 185-197.
• Gould, S. J. and Eldredge, N. (1993), Punctuated equilibrium comes of age. Nature 366: 223-227.Herron, J. C., and Freeman, S. (2015), Evolutionary Analysis. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
• Klamt, M., Thompson, R. and Davis, J. (2011), Early response of the platypus to climate warming. Global Change Biology 17: 3011-3018.
• Ledford, H. (2008), Platypus fossil suggest slow evolution. Nature.Moore, J. A. (1983), Why Are There Creationists? Journal of Geological Education 31(2): 95-104.
• Rieppel, O. (2023), "Living fossils" and the mosaic evolution of characters. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11: 1119418.
• Rowe, T., Rich, T. H., Vickers-Rich, P., Springers, M. and Woodbourne, M. O. (2008), The oldest platypus and its bearing on divergence timing of the platypus and echidna clades. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(4): 1238-1242.
• Turner, D. D. (2019), In defense of living fossils. Biology & Philosophy 34:23.
• Wallace, R. (2014), A new formal perspectie on 'Cambrian explosions'. C. R. Biologies 337: 1-5.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Phyletic gradualism (online) (Access date unknown).

Woolly mammoths are an iconic feature of the Ice Age in popular imagination. However, on today's episode, we will also see that they are the basis of a fun fact that may change your perception of the past...

Sources for this episode:

• Ashman, D., Nature (2000), The sky was the limit for the Pyramid builders (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].
• Bartlett, C. (2014), The Design of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Nexus Network Journal 16: 299-311.
• Clayton, P. A. and Price, M. J. (eds.) (2002), The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. London and New York: Routledge.
• The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Pyramid (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].
• Fernie, J. D. (2004), Marginalia: Astronomy and the Great Pyramid. American Scientist 92(5): 406-409.
• Foster, K. P. (2014), The Hanging Gardens of Nineveh. IRAQ 66: 207-220.
• Haynes, G. (2002), The catastrophic extinction of North American mammoths and mastodons. World Archaeology 33(3): 391-416.
• Hofreiter, M. and Lister, A. (2006), Mammoths. Current Biology 16(10): R347-R348.
• Miller, J. H. and Simpson, C. (2022), When did mammoths go extinct? Nature 612: E1-E3.
• Spence, K. (2000), Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of the pyramids. Nature 408: 320-324.
• Vartanyan, S., Arslanov, K., Karhu, J., Possnert, G., & Sulerzhitsky, L. (2008), Collection of radiocarbon dates on the mammoths (Mammuthus Primigenius) and other genera of Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, Russia. Quaternary Research, 70(1), 51-59.
• Wee, Y. K., World Atlas (2019), Did Cleopatra Really Live Closer In Time To The First Lunar Landing Than The Great Pyramids? (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Radiocarbon dating (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].

A throwaway comment on Big Bang Theory got me thinking- could hybrid animals such as the griffin and the hippogriff be possible from a biological viewpoint? Using these two examples, we will explore the chromosome number of hybrid animals and see what it means for our mythical friends...

Sources for this episode:

• Ewart, J. C. (1910), Are Mules Fertile? Nature 2143(85): 106.
• Geldenhuys, M. E. (1989), Die kariotipering van di lieu (Panthera leo). Journal of the South African Veterinary Association 60(1): 41-49.
• Johnson, F. (1976), Mythical Beasts Coloring Book. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
• Mead, D., Ogden, R., Meredith, A., Peniche, G., Smith, M., Corton, C., Oliver, K., Skelton, J., Betteridge, E., Doulcan; J., Holmes, N., Wright, V., Loose, M., Quail, M. A., McCarthy, S. A., Howe, K.,Chow, W., Torrance, J., Collins, J., Challis, R., Durbin, R. and Blatter, M. (2021), The genome sequence of the European golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos chrysaetos Linnaeus 1758 (version 1; peer review: 3 approved). Wellcome Open Research 6: 112.
• Rodriguez, M., Understanding Genetics, The Tech Interactive (2007), Chimeras, Mosaics, and Other Fun Stuff: Why can't mules breed? I understand that a horse and a donkey make a mule but why can't 2 mules have a baby mule? (online) (Accessed 29/07/2023).
• Rosen, B. (2009), Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
• Ryder, O. A. (1993), Przewalski`s Horse: Prospects for Reintroduction into the Wild. Conservation Biology 7(1): 13-15.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Golden eagle (online) (Accessed 20/07/2023).

Introducing my newest venture- being one half of the Autocrat podcast! Autocrat is a podcast which aims to explore Roman civilisation from beginning to end. Beginning with the mythology and the stories of Aeneas and Romulus, the podcast will trace the journey through the Roman Kingdom, the Republic, the Empire and all the way to 1453 and beyond. Who knows if we'll make it that far, but we hope to have fun with it!

The podcast can be found at https://open.spotify.com/show/30Muilr1O66yA4UDcj76SW?si=891136d533c446a5 or on YouTube at youtube.com/@autocratpodcast. If the show sounds fun, feel free to come and join us!

As we'll soon be reaching 100 episodes, I was wondering whether you would be interested in an Ask Me Anything (or AMA) when we get there. If so, feel free to send me questions to the show's email address! I look forward to hearing from you.

This update also tentatively raises the idea of a Biopedia Patreon. Is this something you would be interested in? I have no idea how it would work at present, so feedback on this or whether you would be interested in the first place is welcome. Again, reach out to the email address, or else there is a poll available on the YouTube community on the subject.

It's episode 66, so I thought I'd cover a big event from 66 million years ago- the death of the dinosaurs! But it's not all doom and gloom- we will also take a look at how to prevent asteroid impacts in future.

Sources for this episode:

• Bottke, W. F., Vokrouhlický, D. and Nesvorný, D. (2007), An asteroid breakup 160 Mya as the probable sources of the K/T impactor. Nature 449: 48-53.
• Brusatte, S. (2018), The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: The Untold Story of a Lost World. London: Picador.
• Chapman, C. R. (2004), The hazard of near-Earth asteroid impacts on earth. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 222: 1-15.
• Chapman, C. R. and Morrison, D. (1994), Impacts on the Earth by asteroids and comets: assessing the hazard. Nature 367: 33-40.
• Cohen, K. M., Finney, S. C., Gibbard, P. L. and Fan, J.-X. (2013, updated), The ICS International Chronostratigraphy Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204.
• Dodson, P. (1990), Counting dinosaurs: how many kinds were there? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 87(19): 7608- 7612.
• The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), sublimation (online) [Accessed 29/07/2023].
• Ostrom, J. H. and Padian, K., Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), dinosaur (online) [Accessed 14/07/2023].
• Pope, K. O., Baines, K. H., Ocampo, A. C. and Ivanov, B. A. (1994), Impact winter and the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinctions: Results of a Chicxulub asteroid impact model. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 128: 719- 725.
• Schulte, P., Alegret, L., Arenillas, I., Arz, J. A., Barton, P. J., Brown, P. R., Barlower, T. J., Christeson, G. L., Claeys, P., Cockell, C. S., Collins, G. S., Deutsch, A., Goldin, T. J., Goto, K., Grajales Nishmura, J. M., Grieve, R. A. F., Gulick. S. P. S., Johnson, K. R., Kiessling, W., Koeberl, C., Kring, D. A., MacLeod, K. G., Matsui, T., Melosh, J., Montanari, A., Morgan, J. V., Neal, C. R., Nichols, D. J., Norrison, R. D., Pierazzo, E., Ravizza, G., Rebolledo-Vieyra, M., Reimold, W. U., Robin, E., Salge, T., Speijer, R. P., Sweet, A. R., Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J., Vajida, V., Whalen, M. T. and Willumsen, P. S. (2010), The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene Boundary. Science 327(5970): 1214- 1218.
• Starrfelt, J. and Liow, L. H. (2016), How many dinosaur species were there? Fossil bias and true richness estimated using a Poisson sampling model. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 371(1691): 20150219.
• Yousuf, I., Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Empire State Building (online) [Accessed 27/07/2023].

Enrico Fermi is the man behind today’s episode, as we’re going to talk all about the Fermi paradox. In essence, why do we not see anyone else out there in the universe besides ourselves? Well, a number of solutions have been proposed- and they have to do with the second concept in today’s episode: the Great Filter.

Sources for this episode:

• Bailey, M. M. (2023), Could AI be the Great Filter? What Astrobiology can Teach the Intelligence Community about Anthropogenic Risks. arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.05653.
• Borger, J., the Guardian (2022), Cuban missile crisis 60 years on: new papers reveal how close the world came to nuclear disaster (online) [Accessed 08/07/2023].
• Buser, R. (2000), The Formation and Early Evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy. Science 287(5450): 69-74.
• The Editors of Scientific American (2015), Exoplanets: Worlds Without End. New York: Scientific American.
• Laughlin, R. B. and Pines, D. (2000) The Theory of Everything. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97(1): 28-31.
• Raschky, P. A. and Wang, L. C. (2017), Reproductive behaviour at the end of the world: the effect of the Cuban Missile Crisis on U.S. fertility. Applied Economics 49(56): 5722- 5727.
• Re, F. (2022), Can the Theory of Everything be the Great Filter?
• Stern, S. M. (2005), The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
• Author unknown, NASA (date unknown), Hubble’s New Shot of Proxima Centauri, our Nearest Neighbour (online) [Accessed 09/07/2023].
• Author unknown, NASA Exoplanet Exploration (date unknown), Largest Batch of Earth-size Habitable Zone Planets Found Orbiting TRAPPIST-1 (online) [Accessed 09/07/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Parsec (online) [Accessed 08/07/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Tau Ceti (online) [Accessed 09/07/2023].

Hello everyone, just a quick note that the YouTube comments are active on all videos and in the community tab. Feel free to drop me a line there as an alternative to the show's email address and stay tuned for extra features such as polls in future!

In July 2023, the world experienced three consecutive days which were the hottest day on record. In fact, an interview with the Washington Post cited that it was the hottest day for 125,000 years. What does that mean? Well, today's episode will put that number into prehistorical and historical context, as well as compare our current global warming to an example of change from the Cretaceous.

Sources for this episode:

• Blum, M. G. B., and Jakobsson, M. (2010), Deep Divergence of Human Gene Trees and Models of Human Origins. Molecular Biology and Evolution 28(2): 889- 898.

• Cavalheiro, L., Wagner, T., Steinig, S., Bottini, C., Dummann, W., Esegbue, O., Gambacorta, G., Giraldo-Gómez, V., Farnsworth, A., Flögel, S., Hofmann, P., Lunt, D. J., Rethemeyer, J., Torricelli, S. and Erba, E. (2021), Impact of global cooling on Early Cretaceous high pCO2 world during the Weissert event. Nature Communications 12: 5411.
• Dee, M., Wengrow, D., Shortland, A., Stevenson, A., Brock, F., Flink, L. G. and Ramsey, C. B. (2013), An absolute chronology for early Egypt using radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical modelling. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 469: 20130395.
• Gómez-Robles, A. (2019), Dental evolutionary rates and its implications for the Neanderthal–modern human divergence. Science Advances 5(5): eaaw1268.
• Haber, M., Jones, A. L., Connell, B. A., Asan, E. A., Yang, H., Thomas, M. G., Xue Y. and Tyler-Smith, C. (2019), A Rare Deep-Rooting D0 African Y-Chromosomal Haplogroup and Its Implications for the Expansion of Modern Humans Out of Africa. Genetics 212(4): 1421-1428.
• Hublin, J.-J. (2017), The last Neanderthal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114(40): 10520- 10522.
• Jones, D. (2007), The Neanderthal within. New Scientist 193(2593): 28-32.
• Osborne, M., Smithsonian Magazine (2023), Earth Faces Hottest Day Ever Recorded- Three Days In A Row (online) [Accessed 07/07/2023].
• Pettitt, P. B. (1999) Disappearing from the World: An Archaeological Perspective on Neanderthal Extinction. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 18: 217-240.
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• Sands, L., Washington Post (2023), This July 4 was hot. Earth’s hottest day on record, in fact (online) [Accessed 07/07/2023].
• Stringer, C. (2012), The Status of Homo heidelbergensis (Shoetenstack 1908). Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News and Reviews 21(3): 87- 125.
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• Zhang, S., truthout (2023), July 3 Was the Hottest Day on Record. Then July 4 Came Along. (online) [Accessed 07/07/2023].
• Author unknown, CNN (2023), Global temperatures break heat record (online) [Accessed 07/07/2023].
• Author unknown, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (date unknown), Homo neanderthalensis (online) [Accessed 07/07/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Mesozoic (online) [Accessed 09/07/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Palaeogene (online) [Accessed 09/07/2023].

On today's episode, we're going to range out into the cosmos for our inaugural episode in the world of astrobiology! We're going to ask the question: how many people could our galaxy support? Using some assumptions and approximations, we're going to see that the number dwarfs our current numbers here on Earth by quite some margin...

Sources for this episode:

• Asimov, I. (1952, 2016 edition), Foundation and Empire. London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
• Briggs, J. C. (2017), Emergence of a sixth mass extinction? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 122: 243- 248.
• Chamie, J. (2022), Population Levels, Trends and Differentials: More Important Population Matters. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
• Chu, J., MIT News (2023), Astronomers snap first ever image of supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Cowie, R. H., Bouchet, P. and Fontaine, B. (2022): The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation? Biological Reviews 97: 640- 663.
• de Almeida, G. (2004), The Milky Way. Chapter in: Navigating the Night Sky. Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy Series. London: Springer.
• The Editors of Scientific American (2015), Exoplanets: Worlds Without End. New York: Scientific American.
• Hodge, P. W. (1981), The Andromeda Galaxy. Scientific American 244(1): 92-101.
• Hodge, P. W., Encyclopedia Britannica (2017), Magellanic Cloud (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Hodge, P. W., Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Milky Way Galaxy (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Kurzgesagt- In a Nutshell, YouTube (2022), The Last Human- A Glimpse Into The Far Future (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Ramakrishna, S. (2021), Circular economy and sustainability pathways to build a new-modern society. Drying Technology 39(6): 711-712.
• Ritchie, H., Our World in Data (2023), The UN has made population projections for more than 50 years- how accurate have they been? (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Sender, R., Fuchs, S. and Milo, R. (2016), Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body. PLOS Biology 14(8): e1002533.
• Stellato, J. (2020), The Milky Way and Lentil Beans. Science Scope 43(6): 44- 49.
• Stevenson, D. (2015), Milkomeda and the Fate of the Milky Way. Chapter in: The Complex Lives of Star Clusters. Astronomers’ Universe. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
• University of Göttingen, Phys.org (2021), Breaking the warp barrier for faster-than-light travel (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• van den Heuvel, E. (2016), How Distant Are the Stars? Chapter in: The Amazing Unity of the Universe. Astronomers’ Universe. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
• Author unknown, NASA Exoplanet Exploration: Planets Beyond Our Solar System (date unknown, updated July 2023), Discovery (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Author unknown, United Nations (2022), Day of Eight Billion, 15 November 2022 (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Names of large numbers (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].

Climate change is a big topic, and one we're not going to cover here. However, there are international efforts to try and do something about it. Today's topic is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC to its friends), which was first set up in the nineties. What exactly did it lead to? Well, that's what we're here for...

Sources for this episode:

• Bowman, W. D., Hacker, S. D. and Cain, M. L. (2017). Ecology (4th International Edition).Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• The Editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2023), Industrial Revolution (online) [Accessed 04/06/2023].
• The Editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2023), Kyoto Protocol (online) [Accessed 12/06/2023].
• Hughes, T. P., Kerry, J. T., Álvarez-Noriega, M., Álvarez-Romero, J. G., Anderson, K. D., Baird, A. H., Babcock, R. C., Beger, M., Bellwood, D. R., Berkelmans, R., Bridge, T. C., Butler, I. R., Byrne, M., Cantin, N. E., Comeau, S., Connolly, S. R., Cumming, G. S., Dalton, S. J., Diaz-Pulido, G., Eakin, C. M., Figueira, W. F., Gilmour, J. P., Harrison, H. B., Heron. S. F., Hoey, A. S., Hobbs, J.-P. A., Hoogenboom, M. O., Kennedy, E. V., Kuo, C.-Y., Lough, J. M., Lowe, R. J., Liu, G., McCulloch, M. T., Malcolm, H. A., McWilliam, M. J., Pandolfi, J. M., Pears, R. J., Pratchett, M. S., Schoepf, V., Simpson, T., Skirving, W. J., Sommer, B., Torda, G., Wachenfeld, D. R., Willis, B. L. and Wilson, S. K.(2017), Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals. Nature, 543(7645): 373–377.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2019), Global Warming of 1.5°C.
• Kinley, R., Cutajar M. Z., de Boer, Y. and Figueres, C. (2021), Beyond good intentions, to urgent action: Former UNFCCC leaders take stock of thirty years of international climate change negotiations. Climate Policy, 21(5): 593-603.
• O’Neill, B. C. and Oppenheimer, M. (2002), Dangerous Climate Impacts and the Kyoto Protocol. Science 296(5575): 1971-1972.
• United Nations. (1992), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change United Nations.
• Author unknown, Climate Action Tracker (2021), Warming Projections Global Update- November 2021.
• Author unknown, UC San Diego (date unknown), The Keeling Curve (online) [Accessed 12/06/2023].
• Author unknown, United Nations Climate Change (date unknown), Conference of the Parties (COP) (online) [Accessed 04/06/2023].
• Author unknown, United Nations Climate Change (date unknown), The Paris Agreement (online) [Accessed 12/06/2023].
• Author unknown, United Nations Climate Change (date unknown), What is the Kyoto Protocol? (online) [Accessed 12/06/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), List of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (online) [Accessed 04/06/2023].

Hello everyone, Vince here with a quick update on how the podcast schedule is probably going to work from now on. I'm likely as not going to try out a monthly schedule- meaning that a new After Alexander will show up on the first Saturday of every month and a Biopedia on the third Sunday- although that may vary depending if I have more or less time for it in a given month. Who knows, there may well be more than one episode a month if I'm lucky!

There may also be some extra content in the 'Community' tab of the podcasts' YouTube pages as well. I'm trying this new schedule in order to walk the line between not releasing any content at all and burning out due to trying to juggle everything at once. I'm also releasing this update on After Alexander's feed.

It's that time of year again! This time round, I thought I'd put Charles Darwin's life into a little bit of historical context. This is because I imagine most people have a stereotypical image of him in their heads as a model Victorian gentleman. However, his life saw quite a few other historical events that wouldn't really spring to mind. For instance, would it have occurred to you that Darwin witnessed the closing years of the Napoleonic Wars? So, in honour of Darwin's birthday, let's explore a few of the events in his life it might not occur to you he witnessed...

Sources for this episode:

• Chisholm, E., Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911, Vol. II), Peninsular War (eBook) [Accessed 10/02/2023].
• Cronin, V. (1971), Napoleon. London: Harper Collins Publishers LLC.
• Cussans, T. (2017), The Times Kings & Queens of the British Isles: A History of Monarchy. Marlborough: Times Books Ltd.
• Current, R. N., Encyclopaedia Britannica (2023), Abraham Lincoln (online) [Accessed 05/02/2023].
• Darwin, C. R. (1945), The Voyage of the Beagle. The Temple Press Letchworth: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
• The Editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2008), Confederation of the Rhine (online) [Accessed 10/02/2023].
• Hoyer, K. (2021), Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918 (eBook). Cheltenham: The History Press [Accessed 10/02/2023].
• Littlewood, I. (2002), The Rough Guide: History of France. London: Rough Guides Ltd.
• Roberts, A. (2014), Napoleon the Great (eBook) [Accessed 10/02/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Cape Verde (online) [Accessed 11/02/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Charles Darwin [Accessed 10/02/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Santiago, Cape Verde (online) [Accessed 11/02/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), 2005 (online) [Accessed 10/02/2023].

This episode is going to be a return to genetics with an introduction to some phylogenetic terms. Groups can be monophyletic, paraphyletic or polyphyletic depending on who exactly is included. Confused? Well, that's what Biopedia is here to solve...

Sources for this episode:

• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• Herron, J. C., and Freeman, S. (2015), Evolutionary Analysis. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
• Hine, R. (2019), A Dictionary of Biology (Oxford Quick Reference), 8th edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Polyphyly (online) [Accessed 16/01/2023].

Another day, another episode of Island Folk! Sean Dettman and I discussed the concept of the island fortress as it was perceived in WW2 Britain. Basically, this is the idea that the inhabitants of the UK took comfort in the island nature of their country and the sea protecting them against hostile forces. Sean's upcoming publication on this subject was the focus of the episode's discussion. Along the way, we discuss connections to contemporary events, the paradigm of Britain's lack of invasions since 1066, and draw it all back to how important the way perceptions of unique culture and biology on islands are built up is...

The episode can be found at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1fODK3wb2qd7yQZWrLzvIS?si=d44bbb9396034d42. Enjoy!

First cousins, second cousins, fourth cousins three times removed... What's the difference? And if all three billion letters of your genetic code were unique, how distant a relation would you have to have before the two of you didn't share any of these original letters anymore? This scenario has some assumptions, but we'll use it to explore how large the human genome is!

Sources for this episode:

• Berger, B. M. (1960), How Long Is a Generation? The British Journal of Sociology 11(1): 10-23.
• Bistritzer, T., Fried, K., Lahat, E., Dvir, M. and Goldberg, M. (1993), Congenital contractual arachnodactyly in two double second cousins: possible homozygosity. Clinical Genetics 44: 15-19. (for second cousins, nothing except abstract)
• Matsamura, S. and Forster, P. (2008), Generation time and effective population size in Polar Eskimos. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275: 1501-1508.
• McDermott, M., Genealogy Explained (2022, updated 2024), What are Double First Cousins (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Skipper, M. (2012), User’s guide to the human genome. Nature Reviews Genetics 13: 678.
• Author unknown, Ancestry (date unknown), What is a second, third, or fourth cousin- or a cousin once removed? (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Family tree of English monarchs (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Family tree of the British royal family (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Author unknown, 23 and Me (date unknown), Average Percent DNA Shared Between Relatives (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).

In today's episode, we revisit an old blog post from all the way back in January 2021. George III of the United Kingdom is probably the person most famously associated with porphyria. However, what isn't as often discussed is what exactly it is. Moreover, as we will introduce in today's episode, it isn't just George Hanover who was affected with the condition; his wider family seems to have suffered from it too. We don't touch on this that much in the episode, but it in fact seems to stretch back to Peter I of Bourbon in the 14th century...

Sources for this episode:

• Cussans, T. (2017), The Times Kings & Queens of the British Isles: A History of Monarchy. Marlborough: Times Books Ltd.
• Dean, G. and Barnes, H. D. (1955), The Inheritance of Porphyria. British Medical Journal 2(4931): 89-94.
• Hurst, L. C. (1982), Porphyria revisited. Medical History 26(2): 179-182.
• Macalpine, I., Hunter, R. and Rimington, C. (1968), Porphyria in the Royal Houses of Stuart, Hanover and Prussia: A Follow-up Study of George III's Illness. British Medical Journal 1: 7-18.
• Roy, R., New Scientist (2011), Dracula's disease (online) [Accessed 11/12/2022].
• Author unknown, British Liver Trust (date unknown), Porphyria (online) [Accessed 11/12/2022].
• Author unknown, Genetics Home Reference (2016), porphyria (online) [Accessed 11/12/2022 via Internet Archive].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Peter I, Duke of Bourbon (online) [Accessed 11/12/2022].

NOTE: Original access dates for webpages weren't listed on my blog post, so dates are for pre-podcast access.

My inaugural Island Folk episode has launched! In it, Sean Dettman and I discuss the history of Rapa Nui in relation to the removal of the island's trees, and whether it was this that proved the death knell for the civilisation or the arrival of Europeans. This is a big topic with a lot more nuance than either our discussion or my preceding research was able to fit in or find, but I aim to come back to it in one or more future Biopedia episodes. If people are interested, I will add some references for my pre-reading ahead of our discussion to this episode description.

The episode itself can be found at: Pod 1 Rapa Nui 10 Nov 2022 - Island Folk - On HAU - RADIO - Hautlieu Radio | Podcast on Spotify

Enjoy!

Hello everyone, quick announcement- I've been offered the chance to host a radio programme! Island Folk- the show where we talk about islands and play folk music- forms part of Hautlieu Radio. My background means I'll mostly be discussing island biology, but other aspects such as island history or culture also fall within the show's remit. It usually goes live on Thursdays (3-4 pm) before being uploaded to SoundCloud. It's a very different project to any audio experience I've had before, but I'm looking forward to it! The link to Hautlieu Radio's SoundCloud link is https://soundcloud.com/hautlieu-school, and it can be found on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/6zhcEz3lcZgiNs1uYSlasm?si=9cba6ae13460439c. If it sounds like something you might be interested in, feel free to check it out!

James Ephraim Lovelock, best known for the Gaia hypothesis, died on the 26th of July 2022, on his 103rd birthday. In his honour, this episode is going to detail some of his achievements. During our discussion, we're going to examine his contribution to Martian life detection in the form of a paper published in 1965, as well as outline what the Gaia hypothesis actually refers to...

Sources for this episode:

• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• Hine, R. (2019), A Dictionary of Biology (Oxford Quick Reference), 8th edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Lovelock, J. E. (1965), A Physical Basis for Life Detection Experiments. Nature 207(4997): 568-570.
• Lovelock, J. E. (first published 1979, reprinted 2000), Gaia: A new look at life on Earth (eBook).
• Lovelock, J. E., James Lovelock (date unknown), Home (online) [Accessed c. 30/07/2022 and 08/11/2022].
• Rafferty, J. P., Encyclopaedia Britannica (2022), James Lovelock (online) [Accessed 30/07/2022].
• Tao, A., Encyclopaedia Britannica (2022), Lynn Margulis (online) [Accessed 30/07/2022].
• Web of Stories- Life Stories of Remarkable People, YouTube (2017), James Lovelock- Detecting life on Mars (10/17) (online) [Accessed 30/07/2022].
• Wright, P. and Radford, T., The Guardian (2022), James Lovelock obituary (online) [Accessed 30/07/2022].
• Author unknown, BBC (2022), James Lovelock: Influential green thinker dies aged 103 (online) [Accessed 30/07/2022].
• Author unknown, NASA (date unknown), SETI: The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (online) [Accessed 04/11/2022].

The traditional narrative of the history of biology as a field focusses on the West. As such, other regions of the world are underdiscussed- which is important when discussing how to decolonise our curriculum and therefore what needs to be included and reflected. In this episode, we're going to step back in time to the Islamic Golden Age and discuss evolutionary theory- centuries before Charles Darwin was even born.

Sources for this episode:

• Fuentes, A. (2021), "The Descent of Man", 150 years on. Science 372(6544): 769.
• Haensch, S., Bianucci, R., Signoli, M., Rajerison, M., Schultz, M., Kacki, S., Vermunt, M., Weston, D. A., Hurst, D., Achtman, M., Carniel, E. and Bramanti, B. (2010), Distinct Clones of Yersinia pestis Caused the Black Death. PLOS Pathogens 6(10): e1001134.
• Issawi, C., Encyclopaedia Britannica (2022), Ibn Khaldūn (online) [Accessed 19/07/2022].
• Malik, A. H., Ziermann, J. M. and Diogo, R. (2018), An untold story in biology: the historical continuity of evolutionary ideas of Muslim scholars from the 8th century to Darwin’s time. Journal of Biological Education 52(1): 3-17.
• Singer, C. (1950), A history of biology: a general introduction to the study of living things, 2nd edition, London: Lewis.
• Author unknown, Keele University (2018), Keele Manifesto for decolonising the curriculum (online) [Accessed 16/06/2022].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Islamic Golden Age (online) [Accessed c.20/03/2022 and 23/06/2022].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Muqaddimah (online) [Accessed 19/07/2022].