S3.24 Best bits of 2020
Kat: Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Kat Arney. In this episode we take a look at some of our favourite bits from the podcast over the year, from dark family secrets revealed by genetic testing to the secret scientific history of bird poop. Sit back, relax and enjoy.
Well folks, here we are in November - although I can’t be the only person who still feels it must be September, right? Either way, it’s been a hell of a year, and I very much hope that you and your loved ones have made it safely through this far.
Genetics Unzipped will be taking a break over the Christmas period, although we’ll still be bringing you a couple more episodes of the Genetics Shambles, and republishing a few of our episodes from series one. In the meantime, I wanted to look back over a selection of my very favourite bits from 2020.
It’s an absolute privilege to make these podcasts, whether it’s getting to talk to fascinating people for our interview episodes or delving back into the often-murky history of genetics for our story-based shows.
And, of course, it’s lovely to get feedback from our listeners all over the world - I know you’re out there so please do leave us your ratings and reviews on apple podcasts or drop us a tweet @geneticsunzip to say hi.
I’d also like to say a huge thank-you to The Genetics Society for financially supporting Genetics Unzipped.
Also big thanks to all of our team at First Create The Media who make it possible: Hannah Varrall for editing these episodes together and making them sound amazing (and also dealing with all my fluffs and bloopers); Emily Nordvang for her fantastic in-depth research and scripting help; Georgia Mills for expert additional reporting; Tabitha Dale for managing our Twitter account with flair; Aran Shaunak for helping out with publishing; Viv Andrews for transcription and my awesome right-hand woman Sarah Hazell for operations support.
Before we start, here’s a quick word about another brand new science podcast that you might also enjoy, brought to you by First Create The Media and the Society for Endocrinology. Presented by Georgia Mills, Hormones: The Inside Story uncovers the truth about how hormones affect stress, sleep, body fat, fertility and almost every aspect of our daily lives and health in this new, expert-led, myth-busting show. Available now on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Our episode on hidden family secrets revealed by genetic testing - episode 2 of this season - was the most popular show of the year. I sat down with researcher Jack Nunn from LaTrobe University in Melbourne, Australia, to talk about how his PhD project in genetics inadvertently ended up exposing the dark truth about an event in his family’s history.
I particularly enjoyed putting together episode 5 - Poop, pus and the Manhattan Project - looking at the stories behind the names of the famous four building blocks of DNA, adenine, cytosine, thymine and guanine, or A, C, T and G.
Today, these four initials are ingrained into the scientific lexicon and burned into the brains of anyone who’s ever worked with or even just learned about genes, genomes and DNA. It’s a code that’s as inseparable from genetics as the double helix itself.
It might be surprising to learn that scientists knew that DNA was made up of these four iconic chemicals long before its double helical structure was figured out in the 1950s.
So when were they discovered? And how did they get their unforgettable names? To find out, we went back to the bird poop boom of the 1840s…
Every year The Genetics Society runs the Heredity Fieldwork Grant scheme, covering the travel and accommodation costs for researchers wanting to carry out a fieldwork project in genetics.
In episode 12 our stay-at-home roving reporter Georgia Mills caught up with four intrepid explorers who’ve been off on their travels in locations as exotic as New Zealand, Lanzarote and the Lake District to hear more about their research and what they learned out in the field.
I particularly loved her interview with Cardiff University PhD student Ewen Stenhouse, who spent his fieldwork wrestling some rather angry birds.
Sticking with birds, we had a lot of fun making episode 1, right back at the beginning of January, where we busted some myths about those famous icons of evolution: Charles Darwin’s Galapagos finches.
Finally, I’d like to end with a clip from an interview with geneticist Sarah Tishkoff from the University of Pennsylvania, back in episode 10. I was so lucky to be able to sit down and chat with her at a conference - remember those? - about her work mapping the genetics of African populations. As the field of genetics grapples with its legacy of eugenics, racism and exploitation - some of which is, unfortunately, very much still with us - Sarah is committed to working together with, rather than on, the populations she studies.
That’s all for now. If you want to listen to the full versions of any of those episodes, just check the links in the show notes or head to the page for this podcast at geneticsunzipped.com
We’ll be republishing a few episodes from series 1 over the Christmas break, and we’ll be back in January with new episodes. Please do drop us a line at podcast@geneticsunzipped.com or on twitter @geneticsunzip with your ideas and suggestions for what you’d like to see us cover in 2021. And in the meantime there will also be a few more episodes of Genetics Shambles to fill your ears.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
Genetics Unzipped is written and presented by me, Kat Arney. It is produced by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Hannah Varrall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
