Big Biology

Heart of gold (Ep 144)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comHow are camera traps used in the conservation of cryptic species such as the African golden cat? How can local communities be engaged to foster the success of conservation?In this episode, we talk with Mwezi Mugerwa, winner of the 2025 Indianapolis Prize Emerging Conservationist, a National Geographic Explorer, and President of the Society for Conservat…

The Vital Question: The Chemistry of Early Life

How did life originate on Earth? Why is it that eukaryotes but not bacteria or archaea evolved large size and complicated body forms? How likely is that life has arisen independently elsewhere in the universe?On this episode, we talk with Nick Lane, a biochemist and professor at University College London, about his 2015 book The Vital Question. Nick argues that protolife arose in alkaline hydrothermal vents deep in the early Earth’s oceans. The key early event was the evolution of metabolism powered by proton gradients. In other words, metabolism came first, and all of the rest of traits we think of as universal to life -- DNA, RNA, proteins, transcription, and translation -- came later. He also invokes an energetic perspective on the origin of eukaryotes, arguing that the acquisition of mitochondria distributed energy production through the cell volume, provided vastly more energy per gene, and allowed the dramatic expansion of eukaryotic genomes that in turn support the astonishing diversity of eukaryotic forms we see today.This episode was originally aired in October 2020. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe

From Steppe to Stable (Ep 143)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comHow and when did humans domesticate the horse? How did horses shape our language, culture, and history?On this episode, we talk with Dr. Ludovic Orlando, a research director for the French National Center for Scientific Research and founding director of the Centre for Anthropobiology & Genomics of Toulouse. Ludovic is also the author of the new book Hor…

Doctors by Nature (Ep 142)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comHow do animals use medication and can humans learn from them? What are the evolutionary consequences of animal self-medication?In this episode, we talk with Jaap de Roode, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University and author of the book Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves. Jaap’s research on monar…

Vulnerability in science and in genomes (Ep 141)

What impact has the Trump administration had on biology and the scientific community? How do scientists study genomic adaptation and vulnerability?On this episode we talk with Dr. Katie Lotterhos, Associate Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences at Northeastern University. Katie is also the Secretary for the American Society of Naturalists, and she helped to coordinate and implement a survey of scientists to understand the impacts of the Trump administration’s policies on ecology, evolution, marine science and environmental science. In the first half of the episode, we talk with Katie about carrying out this survey, discuss some of the main themes of the results, and how the results can be used in the future. Then, we talk about Katie’s research where she uses oysters as a study system to understand the genomic basis of local adaptation and genomic vulnerability of populations to environmental change.Cover art by Brianna Longo. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe