Biopedia

By Vince's Podcasts

Biology is a fascinating subject which is well worth exploring. Its scope stretches from individual DNA strands and viruses to blue whales, metapopulations and the biosphere. We will shine the spotlig... more

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FAQs about Biopedia:

How many episodes does Biopedia have?

The podcast currently has 140 episodes available.

Biopedia episodes:

February 12, 2024 Darwin Day 2024- Voyage of the Beagle Part I
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).
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7min
February 04, 202472- Alien Species and the Aldrovandi Cache
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).
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6min
January 21, 202471- Galactic Cycles in Evolutionary History
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.

Roney, J. C. (2017), 1776, Viewed from the West. Journal of the Early Republic 37(4): 655-700.

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.

Zhuralev, A. Y. and Wood, R. A. (2018), The two phases of the Cambrian Explosion. Scientific Reports 8: 16656.

Życiński, J. (2006), Ethics in medical technologies: The Roman Catholic viewpoint. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 13: 518-523.
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6min
December 24, 202370- The Microbiome and Microbiota
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).
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12min
November 05, 2023 Island Folk 3- Saint Helena and Anthropogenic Impact
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!
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3min
November 04, 202369- Punctuated Equilibrium, Phyletic Gradualism and Creationist Philosophy
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).
...more
9min
October 22, 202368- Mammoths and the Pyramids
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].
...more
6min
October 08, 202367- Mythological Hybrids and Chromosome Count
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).
...more
5min
October 06, 2023 Introducing- Autocrat
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!
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9min
September 17, 202366- The KT Extinction
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].
...more
11min

FAQs about Biopedia:

How many episodes does Biopedia have?

The podcast currently has 140 episodes available.

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