Scientists talking to scientists, but accessible to anyone. We are living in a golden age of biology research. Big Biology is a podcast that tells the stories of scientists tackling some of the biggest unanswered questions in biology.
Your hosts, Marty Martin and Art Woods, talk to leading scientists from around the world about topics like why we drink alcohol, human consciousness and artificial intelligence, where diseases come from, and whether Godzilla could actually exist. From each conversation, we produce two podcasts—a condensed version lasting 5-10 minutes, which focuses on just the highlights, and a longer, lightly edited version of the entire conversation. You can listen to the podcasts here, on the BigBiology web site, or get them on iTunes and Google Play.
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Episode 108: The dialectical biologists: challenges of studying evolution in nature (with Erik Svensson)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
How has evolutionary biology evolved over time? What does it take to study evolution in natural populations?
On this episode, we talk with Erik Svensson, an evolutionary biologist at Lund University, Sweden. Historically, evolutionary theory has focused largely on population and quantitative genetics, ... Read More
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Episode 107: Cooperation versus conflict and the path to multicellularity (with Joan Strassmann and David Queller)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
How can we reconcile the evolutionary problem of cooperation? What can social amoebae tell us about the origins of multicellularity?
In this episode, we talk to Joan Strassmann and David Queller, professors at Washington University in St. Louis, about the evolution of cooperation ... Read More
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Episode 106: Long-term experimental evolution in the wild (with Katie Peichel and Andrew Hendry)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
Can we predict evolutionary outcomes if we know starting conditions? Do the products of evolution in nature differ from those studied in well-controlled lab experiments?
On this episode, we talk to Katie Peichel, head of the Division of Evolutionary Ecology at the University ... Read More
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Episode 105: Follow the data: the search for COVID’s origin (with Alina Chan)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
On this episode, we talk with Alina Chan, postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and co-author with Matt Ridley of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 could have plausibly jumped into humans in Wuhan via ... Read More
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Episode 104: Sleeping Beauties: The Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture (with Andreas Wagner)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
Where does biological innovation come from? Why do some innovations wait millions of years for their spotlight?
Life must constantly innovate for evolution to occur, but many forms of biological innovation often lie dormant, sometimes for millions of years. In this episode, we speak to ... Read More
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![[Episode 104b]: Little Biology: Why can’t I regrow my arm? by Art Woods and Marty Martin](https://scholarworks.umt.edu/bigbiology_podcasts/1106/thumbnail.jpg "[Episode 104b]: Little Biology: Why can’t I regrow my arm? by Art Woods and Marty Martin")
[Episode 104b]: Little Biology: Why can’t I regrow my arm?
Art Woods and Marty Martin
Why can some animals regrow limbs while others can’t? Will understanding regeneration in other vertebrates help us regrow arms one day?
Our intern team has taken over the channel to talk about one of their favorite biology topics, limb regeneration! In the episode, Dayna and ... Read More
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Episode 103: Pest-o, change-o: how culture shapes our view of animal commensals (with Bethany Brookshire)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What makes a pest? Why are some animals revered in one culture and vilified in another? How do our ways of life bring us into conflict versus companionship, and what do these interactions mean for us and them?
Rats, squirrels, coyotes, pigeons...often, we view ... Read More
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Episode 102: Inherency in evolution (with Stuart Newman)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What is inherency? What are the potential flaws with our understanding of biological function?
On this episode, we talk with Stuart Newman, professor at New York Medical College. In his recent paper, “Inherency and agency in the origin and evolution of ... Read More
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Episode 101: NEON: The promises and challenges of large-scale ecological research (with Collins and Knapp)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What is NEON? What hopes and concerns do we have for large-scale research projects in ecology?
On this episode of Big Biology, we talk about the challenges of doing…big biology! The National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, is a US National Science Foundation-funded ... Read More
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Episode 100: A retrospective on agency
Art Woods, Marty Martin, and Cameron K. Ghalambor
Big Biology celebrates its 100th episode!
You’re only 100 once, and though we hope there will be many more episodes to come, we wanted to celebrate this milestone with something special. A recurring theme from many of our conversations with guests on the show has ... Read More
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Episode 099: Creativity and passion in science communication (with Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
On this episode, we take a break from the regular format to talk with Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher of The Night Science Podcast, a show that explores the creative side of science with guests from across the globe. Itai is ... Read More
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Episode 098: There’s a thousand genes for that! (with Nick Barton)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What is the “infinitesimal model”? How has our understanding of complex traits changed recently?
On this episode, we talk with Nick Barton, an evolutionary quantitative geneticist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Quantitative genetics has changed a lot in the past ... Read More
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Episode 097: Mutation bias in evolution: climbing Mount Probable (with Arlin Stoltzfus)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What is mutation bias? How does it affect evolution?
In this episode, we talk with Arlin Stoltzfus, a research fellow at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research. Arlin studies mutation bias – the idea that some types ... Read More
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Episode 095: Why are we like this? (with Tina Lasisi)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
Why do humans look so different from one another? Why do we have different types of hair and different skin colors? And what do these traits have to do with the concept of race?
On this episode, we talk with Tina Lasisi, incoming ... Read More
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Episode 094: Synthesizing life on the planet (with John Glass)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What’s the smallest number of genes that cells need to grow and reproduce? Is it possible to synthesize minimal genomes and insert them into cells? What do minimal genomes teach us about life?
In this episode, we talk to John Glass, leader of ... Read More
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Episode 093: Assembling life in the universe (with Sara Walker)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
How will we find life beyond Earth? Can we use a molecule's complexity to distinguish life from non-life?
A common way to search for extraterrestrial life is to look for signs of complex organic molecules on other moons and planets. One trouble with this approach, ... Read More
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Episode 092: A journey into the brilliant abyss (with Helen Scales)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What hidden life lies at the bottom of the deep ocean? How do so many species survive and even thrive with so little light and food and at such pressure?
In this episode, we talk to Helen Scales, a marine biologist, writer, and ... Read More
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Episode 091: How stealth organs make super soldier ants (with Rajee Rajakumar)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What is eco-evo-devo? How can ants help us understand the evolution of development?
There are 20 quadrillion ants in the world, and they come in lots of different shapes and sizes. We even see big differences within colonies, like ants in the genus Pheidole which ... Read More
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Episode 090: Fabricated images threaten the integrity of Alzheimer’s research (with Charles Piller)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What happens when potential fraud is detected in research papers on major medical issues?
In this episode, we talk to Charles Piller, an investigative journalist who published a shocking story in Science magazine in July this year laying out compelling evidence ... Read More
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Episode 089: How one gene determines the fate of a food web (with Matt Barbour)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
Can genes in single species act as keystones in ecosystems? What is AOP2, and how does it affect community composition and persistence?
In this episode, we talk to Matt Barbour, a professor at the University of Sherbrooke, about “keystones” in biology. You’re probably ... Read More
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Episode 088: How I learned to stop worrying and follow the data (with Timothy Caulfield)
Art Woods and Marty Martin
How much coffee should we drink? Is there a scientific way to have a healthy, happy life? And how do we distinguish scientific sense from nonsense?
In this episode, we talk with author and University of Alberta professor Timothy Caulfield about decision making ... Read More
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Episode 087: Life in the lab, are model organisms an asset or impediment to biology?
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What are model organisms? Why have they been so important to biology?
Much of biological research over the past 50 years has relied on model organisms. These species – which include mice, rats, fruit flies, and others – have yielded many insights and led ... Read More
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Episode 086: What the flux? The evolution of oxygen cascades
Art Woods and Marty Martin
How do we properly study complex traits? How does organismal function relate to how organisms evolve?
All animals use oxygen to convert sugars and other substrates into energy using a multi-step pathway called the oxygen cascade. This cascade involves many, many parts of the respiratory, ... Read More
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Episode 085: The rise of the mammals and fall of the dinosaurs
Art Woods and Marty Martin
What makes a mammal a mammal? How did mammals survive the KT event when dinosaurs mostly went extinct? And why did mammals become so dominant?
When we think of the Cretaceous, or the Jurassic, we immediately think of dinosaurs. But mammals were there too! ... Read More
