All in Evolution
This episode is all about the next generation of geneticists, as we meet three up-and-coming scientists who have been supported by the Genetics Society, and learn all about Bermuda skinks, the Black Death and life after a genetics PhD.
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Author and science journalist Rebecca Coffey chats with us about some amazing adaptations and Darwinian delights from her book, Beyond Primates. She tells us about wasp facial recognition genes, how yeast epigenetics explain the Dutch Hunger Winter and a dinner party tale of spider cannibalism.
We’re exploring the epic life of Alfred Russel Wallace; adventurer, naturalist and co-discoverer of natural selection. Biologist and author, Jim Costa, recounts the life of this often forgotten founding father of evolution.
In this episode we’re going microscopic, exploring what tiny tardigrades can teach us about DNA damage, vaccine distribution and even astronaut health in space.
In this episode we’re becoming chromosomal criminals and learning about how researchers are stealing genes from the animal kingdom and using them to improve human health. From 13-lined ground squirrels teaching us how to recover from heart attacks, to bowhead whales showing us how to avoid cancer, there’s a lot geneticists can learn from Mother Nature.
We’re saying bye-bye to the boys, and exploring whether new gene technologies and climate change will make males extinct.
We’re going back to the very genesis of our species in search of the genetic Adam and Eve - who were they and when did they live?
In this episode we’re taking a look at the birds and the bees - not like that! - from the unusual migratory habits of European blackcaps and the ‘greatest shoal on earth’ to the division of labour in a beehive, we’ll be exploring the role that genetics plays in shaping animal behaviours.
There’s something unnatural about carnivorous plants. We’re so used to plants being at the bottom of the food chain, that to see them trapping, killing and eating animals seems to go against the laws of nature. But of course, carnivory in plants is very real and has evolved multiple times in response to a lack of nutrients. In this episode we’re looking at how carnivorous plants work, what lives inside the digestive juices, and even a future with carnivorous crops.
