How and when did early humans domesticate the plants that we use today? Did these ancient farmers purposefully select traits, or did they domesticate unconsciously? In the future, can breeders and farmers grow more nutritious and robust food using genomics?
In this episode, we talk to Michael Purugganan, an evolutionary biologist at NYU, about some of our favorite foods, where they came from, and what to do to ensure we will still have them in the future.
We also talk about rice, an essential staple crop for the world. Michael describes his genomic work with rice to make it more robust and resilient, especially in the face of climate change and a growing human population. His research is part of a global effort to make a Green Super Rice, a rice variety suitable for the diverse challenges of the future.
Cover art: Keating Shahmehri
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bigbiology/supportBig Biology Year End Wrap-Up
A gene’s-eye view: Useful tool or narrow lens? (Ep 73)
Stability and change: Lessons from the Serengeti (Ep 72)
Please don't kill the bats! (Ep 5 Re-release)
A tattoo on the brain: The neurobiology of Alzheimer's disease (Ep 71)
The virus and the vegan: How the brain gains inference (Ep 70)
Butterfl-eyes: The evolution and function of insect vision (Ep 69)
Performance anxiety: How coastal invertebrates cope with changing climate extremes (Ep 68)
Season 4 Preview (and more)
Foiling the flashy: How artificial light dims insect behavior (Ep 67)
Old vaccines for new pandemics (Ep 66)
Mouse on a hill: The structure and function of agency (Ep 65)
The stall protocol: Diapause in the annual killifish (Ep 64)
Survival of the systems: The power of persistence (Ep 63)
Situated Darwinism: Organism-centered evolution (Ep 62)
Decoding CRISPR: Jennifer Doudna and the future of gene editing (Ep 61)
Human-assisted evolution: Conserving coral diversity (Ep 60)
Feel the burn: The limits of human energy expenditure and endurance (Ep 59)
Finding our voice: The neurobiology of vocal learning (Ep 58)
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