In this episode, Xavier Bonilla has a dialogue with Laurence Hurst about the imperfection of evolution. They discuss mutation, selection, and adaptation, DNA and waste, larger and smaller populations, sickle cell anemia, embryology, gene editing and CRISPR, and many more topics.

Laurence Hurst is Professor of Evolutionary Genetics in The Milner Centre for Evolution, at the University of Bath, UK. He has his DPhil in Zoology from Oxford University. His research interests cover a broad span of evolution, genetics and genomics, predominantly using computational and mathematical techniques to understand the way genes and genomes evolve. He is the author of the latest book, The Imperfection of Evolution: The science of why we aren’t and can’t be perfect.

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