Ask A Biologist Podcast

This animal lives in almost every part of the world and kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. What might surprise you is that you certainly have had a close encounter with the world’s most dangerous creature. Dr. Biology catches up with evolutionary biologist Silvie Huijben to talk about this killer animal that is the focus of her research as well as many other scientists around the wor...

There is more to our memory than you might think. In fact, we have three types of memory. Just how these memory systems work and work together is the subject of this episode. We also learn that there are sometimes errors in our memory. Take a few minutes to learn how we remember things and even how to improve our memory. Dr. Biology and cognitive psychologist Whitney Hansen explore our amazing but...

Part of what makes science fun and challenging is solving puzzles and investigating mysteries. For this episode, Dr. Biology sits down with ecologist Charles Brown and the two talk about his 40-year journey of discovery and rediscovery. This is a curious story that involves an acrobatic animal and how it is evolving to battle a six-legged villain. Like a good mystery, this one has yet to be fully...

We peek behind the curtain of SICB and the band of scientists who are investigating the world of animal communication. Scientists Kim Hoke and Nate Morehouse sit down with Dr. Biology and talk about how the Spatio-temporal Dynamics in Animal Communication group started and some of the key areas they are investigating. The two also talk about the communication skills of some colorful and vocal anim...

No, that is not a typo in the episode title. My guests today are collaborating on the study of animal movement, including humans. Both researchers use tools to document and analyze movement in animals. One tool is a symbolic language that has been in use since 1928 and the other is a new software tool called SLEAP that uses A.I. to capture animal and plant movements. In this show, Dr. Biology gets...

Changing careers can be a challenge. It can also be rewarding.  And for some people, it is an opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream. This would be the case for John Truong who has been an artist and animator on some of the popular movies produced by Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney. While he was and will always be an artist, he also has been hiding a secret from his friends and family. Dr. Biology...

What does it take to attract a mate? For some animals, it requires some push-ups. Other animals have a dance. And in both cases showing off some color is important. Dr. Biology catches up with biologist David Clark to learn more about his lizards and the robot lizards he has built to study these animals. The two also talk about David’s other study animal some fun jumping spiders. It turns out thes...

No, this episode is not about the rock band or the cute German car that people love. This show is about some curious insects that have very different relationships with ants. To be exact, this is about three species of beetles that either battle ants, live close by an ant colony, or in one case inside the ant colony. How and why these species have evolved into these different relationships with an...

In 1962 there was a popular Broadway musical called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum . What does this have to do with a science podcast? The thought came up because of what happened at the conference today. And what was it? It was a dance performance. In fact, there were several performances. This episode is about the unexpected, the creative, the fun, and the science that are part o...

Forget all the robots you might have seen or imagined. This biologist is making colorful coiling snakes and other robots to study animals in the wild. Dr. Biology expands his idea of what robots look like and what they can do when he meets and talks with roboticist and biologist Talia Yuki Moore . This episode is part of a series of podcasts recorded at the Society of Integrative and Comparative B...

The life of a biologist may not be what you expect. It is not all white lab coats and microscopes. There are remote islands, makeshift shacks that serve both for sleeping and a field laboratory. For this guest, it also includes cricket serenades and nighttime scuba dives in the ocean filled with glowing displays of shrimp vomit. Really, vomit! Dr. Biology sits down with biologist Niko Hensley to l...

It’s cold, it’s hard, and you might not think of it as critical for life on Earth, but there is some ice that is more important than you might know. Dr. Biology sits down with scientist Stephanie Pfirman to talk about summer ice and how the amount we see is shrinking rapidly. This ice is important to more than the animals and native people who depend on it to survive. It turns out it has an impact...

There is something about sharks that bring out our inner fears. It is likely their teeth or their black eyes that are shown in scary movies and nature films that send chills down our back. But these animals have an important role in the health of our oceans. With over 500 species of sharks, there is a lot to be learned about them - like some of them do not have any teeth. Dr. Biology catches up wi...

It's tiny versus the mighty and a battle for an acacia tree. Dr. Biology catches up with Beth Pringle , a biologist exploring the savanna of Kenya. The two talk about two animals that seem mismatched for the battle that has a surprise ending. Beth is also the biologist who took us along on one of her research trips to Kenya. You can go along too in our virtual savanna trip . If you have not a...

Nature versus nurture is a topic you might have studied in school. But what does it mean for us? In short, it is what makes you the person you are today. However, nothing is simple and the science behind the story of you is just as complex. It is a tale that is more amazing than anything you might have read, watched, or heard. Dr. Biology has the opportunity to talk about nature versus nurture wit...

The idea of humans traveling to the moon and Mars to live has captured our imagination. But beyond the idea of going where no one has gone before, these places are hostile and extreme environments for the human body. Planning for long space travel and life on other worlds will require more than solving some challenging engineering problems. It will require humans to think more about how we can sur...

Beyond viral cat videos and the millions of cute pictures of our feline friends found on various social media channels, these four-legged animals might help us to better understand science. At least my guest thinks they can give us some insights into the world of bile acids, digestion, cholesterol, and drug therapies. Listen in as Dr. Biology learns how computational biochemist Fiona Naughton&apos...

Dr. Biology takes a bite into the world of food science with scientist Christy Spackman from the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. The two venture into the realms of taste, smell, and texture. There is talk of burgers, some of them impossible. The two also talk about how we have been working towards what Christy calls “making nothin...

Dr. Biology is out of the studio again and this time with his shoes off and inside the tiny, but powerful submarine named Alvin. He’s there to talk with the chief pilot of Alvin, Bruce Strickrott , about what it is like to explore the deep ocean. Listen in as we explore the living world, including the one that remains mostly unknown and ready for the next generation of scientists to take their sho...

Diving deep into the ocean is likely the most extreme place someone can set out to collect data, but sometimes that is what scientists need to do. In this show, Dr. Biology finds himself on board the research ship Atlantis in the floating laboratory of Colleen Hansel who is teaming up with the deep-sea submarine called Alvin to track down and capture an elusive molecule that might help us understa...

For hundreds of years, scientists have explored life on Earth with their feet firmly planted on the ground. Doing research was either in the laboratory or out in the field. But in recent years, exploring our planet has taken to the air. Dr. Biology gets to spend some time with ecologist Greg Asner to learn about his flying laboratory that is giving us a new view of our planet and new insights into...

What can evolution teach us about getting sick and how do we make use of what we are learning? Dr. Biology gets over a cold while visiting with Randy Nesse , Founding Director of the ASU Center for Evolution & Medicine. The two talk about why we get sick and some of the amazing things our body can do to repair itself. All of this is part of the study and practice of evolutionary medicine. If y...

One of the benefits of being a biologist can be travel. There are some researchers who travel the globe as part of their work. Arvind Varsani is a molecular virologist who studies viruses found around the world. Dr. Biology was able to catch Arvind between trips to talk about his work, including his research in the Antarctic and the mystery about some penguins that are missing their feathers. Lear...

In this episode, we talk a lot about cells. In particular plant, animal, and microbial cells. But did you know there is a world of microbes that make their home inside and on our bodies? Before you start to worry, you need to know most of these microbes are important for us to live. In fact, without them, we would not be here. This tiny world is the focus of Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown’s research. It sp...

This is the story of wild rabbits, humans, and a virus that might lead to a treatment for cancer. It is also a lesson about learning from history and how a virus that is deadly to some rabbits could become a new cancer-fighting tool for humans. Twice humans moved wild rabbits from Europe to other parts of the world with dramatic consequences. In this episode, Dr. Biology has the opportunity to lea...