Biopedia

Throughout history, there have been several claims of unusual longevity. For example, Pliny the Elder mentions several cases of people claiming to be 140 in a first century CE census. Moreover, there is a man in England who supposedly died at the age of 169 in 1670. However, they don't quite compare to the case of Colestein Veglin from July 1876. Sources for this episode: TBA

Previous episodes of the podcast have established the precedent of examining specific species or taxa. On today's episode, we are going to examine a snake. Not just any snake- the biggest snake to have ever lived... Sources for this episode: TBA

Pascal's Triangle is a useful concept in binomial theorem. However, it also has uses in biology. Today, we use it to answer the question- if you have X number of kids in a family or randomly chosen people in a sample, what is the probability of ending up with at least Y males and/or Z females? Sources for this episode: TBA

Adam and Eve, Ask and Embla, Deucalion and Pyrrha... The cultures of the world seemingly love the idea of humanity descending from two founders. While this notion may not be in line with scientific thought, there are two individuals who everyone can trace either maternal or paternal ancestry to. Say hello to mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam... Sources for this episode: Berta, P., Hawkins,...

We know today that our planet Earth is billions of years old. However, the people of a few centuries ago would have been equally convinced it was only a few thousand years old. So what were some of these old ages, and how big a shift is it from there to the age we've arrived at today? Sources for this episode: TBA

It was one of the oldest individual organisms to have lived. And yet, in 2006, its story would come to an end. To find out how, come and join us on this adaptation of a post on the Biopedia website into audio format. Sources for this episode: TBA

Tackling James Lovelock's most famous theorem is no easy task. However, that's exactly what we're going to do today. Join us for a breakdown of the Gaia Hypothesis, a discussion of altruism, a throwback to the Black Queen Hypothesis in episode 21 and some speculation based on an early 2000s book by Lovelock himself. Sources for this episode: TBA

As it turns out, Louis XIII of France and Drypetina of Pontus have something in common. They have hyperdontia, or too many teeth. Today, we go through the phenomena of hyperdontia, hypodontia and concomitant hypo-hyperdontia. Sources for this episode: Ammianus Marcellinus (1956) in Three Volumes (Vol. I). Translated by J. C. Rolfe. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press and...

An episode all about a suggested topic- the walrus! Let's explore how one species used to many, and the challenges the sole surviving species faces in the modern day... Sources for this episode: TBA

WE DID IT! 100 episodes. It feels crazy to say that the beginning of Biopedia in late 2020 is four and a half years ago when this episode comes out. Thank you all so much for listening and I look forward to many more episodes to come! To celebrate our milestone, we are discussing a milestone in biology- as voted for by you the community over on YouTube. Get ready for an outmoded theory about how b...

Don't worry, you have not in fact stumbled onto a physics podcast. However, the Laws of Thermodynamics do have a rather significant connection to evolutionary biology. This is because, at first glance, they appear to lead to a rather startling conclusion- life should not be able to evolve at all... Sources for this episode: Berg, J. M., Tymoczko, J. L. and Stryer, L. (2007), Biochemistry (6th edit...

Quick correction: I call the episode on sibling species episode 37 in the audio, but it's actually episode 47! Way back in the early days of Biopedia, we discussed the concept of sibling species. Now, we're talking about cryptic species. Are these the same concept? Well, as we will see today, it's complicated... Sources for this episode: Allaby, M. (editor) (2020), Oxford Dictionary of Zoology. Ox...

2023 was a warm year. But let's put it into context. To do that, a 2024 study looked at temperature and tree core data to assemble summer temperatures all the way back to 1 CE. As for the result- the title speaks for itself... Sources for this episode: Bianchi, G. G., & McCave, I. N. (1999). Holocene periodicity in North Atlantic climate and deep-ocean flow south of Iceland. Nature, 397(6719):...

A bit of an unusual one this year- I was recently given a Dr Who book featuring Charles Darwin. So, let's examine the historical details of this novella and see how they represented Darwin. Have they done him justice? Sources for this episode: TBA

Your number of ancestors double every generation. Two parents, four grandparents, and so on. If we compare these numbers to the total number of people alive on the planet as we go back in time, what do we find? And what do researchers say on the subject? Sources for this episode: Bell, S., Phys (2013), Researcher uses DNA to demonstrate just how closely everyone on Earth is related to everyone els...

For a podcast which has talked several times before about global warming and climate change, we haven't addressed fossil fuels yet. So, let's redress that today! Sources for this episode: Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kalair, A., Abas, N., Saleem, M. S., Kalair, A. R. and Khan, N. (2020), Role of energy storage systems in e...

In episode 71, we treated a galactic cycle of about 220 million years as a unit of time with which to view evolution. Today, we'll be picking up where we left off and seeing the story through all the way to the end- or rather, the beginning... Sources for this episode: Cox, B. and Cohen, A. (2013), Wonders of Life. London: HarperCollins Publishers. Emelyanov, V. V. (2001), Rickettsiaceae, Rick...

In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl- then in the USSR, now in Ukraine- experienced meltdown. This disaster is one of the worst in nuclear history. However, there are some biological consequences we should explore. Sources for this episode: The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2020), Chernobyl accident summary (online) (Accessed 29/05/2024). The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), H...

Recently in conservation news, the UK brought in a ban on sand eel fishing effective as of March 2024. This is connected to how important sand eel are to seabirds. However, as we will see today, there are political repercussions of such an announcement... Let's watch the political and the conservation worlds meet. Sources for this episode: Mitsilegas, V. and Guild, E. (2024), THe UK and the EC...

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: 5...

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 AT...

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. Hubbel...

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,...

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 th...

Twenty-one episodes ago, we discussed the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years before the present. However, this isn't the only mass extinction event the Earth has witnessed. Let's go back to 252 million years ago and watch the Great Dying unfold... Sources for this episode: Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biolog...