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.

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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.

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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....

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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.

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

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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...

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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.

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