Category: Podcast

In episode 71, we treated a galactic cycle of about 220 million years as a unit of time with which to view evolution. Today, we'll be picking up where we left off and seeing the story through all the way to the end- or rather, the beginning…

Sources for this episode:

• Cox, B. and Cohen, A. (2013), Wonders of Life. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
• Emelyanov, V. V. (2001), Rickettsiaceae, Rickettsia-like Endosymbionts, and the Origin of Mitochondria. Bioscience Reports 21(1): 1-17.
• Herron, J. C., and Freeman, S. (2015), Evolutionary Analysis. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
• Knoll, A. H. (2005), Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Thain, M. and Hickman, M. (2004), The Penguin Dictionary of Biology (11th edition). London: the Penguin Group.
• Wernegreen, J. J. (2012), Endosymbiosis. Current Biology 22(14): R555-R561.

In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl- then in the USSR, now in Ukraine- experienced meltdown. This disaster is one of the worst in nuclear history. However, there are some biological consequences we should explore.

Sources for this episode:

• The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2020), Chernobyl accident summary (online) (Accessed 29/05/2024).
• The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), Half-life (online) (Accessed 31/05/2024).
• Ellegren, H., Lingren, G., Primmer, C. R. and Møller, A. P. (1997), Fitness loss and germline mutations in barn swallows breeding in Chernobyl. Nature 389: 593-596.
• Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Møller, A. P. and Mousseau, T. A. (2015), Strong effects of ionizing radiation from Chernobyl on mutation rates. Nature Scientific Reports 5: 8363.
• Weinberg, H. Sh., Korol, A. B., Kirzhner, V. M., Avivi, A., Fahima, T., Nevo, E., Shapiro, S., Rennert, G., Piatak, O., Stepanova, E. I. and Skvarskaja, E. (2001), Very high mutation rate in offspring of Chernobyl accident liquidators. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 268: 1001-1005.

Recently in conservation news, the UK brought in a ban on sand eel fishing effective as of March 2024. This is connected to how important sand eel are to seabirds. However, as we will see today, there are political repercussions of such an announcement… Let's watch the political and the conservation worlds meet.

Sources for this episode:

• Mitsilegas, V. and Guild, E. (2024), THe UK and the ECHR After Brexit: The Challenge of Immigration Control. European Convention of Human Rights Law Review 5(1): 116-131.
• Murphy, P. and Shoesmith, K., BBC (2023), Sandeel fishing ban a lifeline to seabirds (online) (Accessed 15/05/2024).
• Author unknown, European Commission (2024), EU requests consultations under Trade and Cooperation Agreement over UK's permanent closure of the sandeel fishery (online) (Accessed 15/05/2024).
• Author unknown, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (online) (Accessed 31/05/2024).
• Author unknown, RSPB (date unknown), Big news for seabirds as campaign to close the English North Sea and Scottish waters to sandeel fishing succeeds (online) (Accessed 15/05/2024).
• Author unknown, Scottish Government (2024), The Sandeel (Prohibition of Fishing) (Scotland) Order 2024: business and regulatory assessment-final (online) (Accessed 15/05/2024).

Back to talking about the impacts of climate change, and this time it's something pretty fundamental that's being impacted- the length of a day…

Sources for this episode:

• Agnew, D. C. (2024), A global timekeeping problem postponed by global warming. Nature 628: 333-336.
• Mitchell, R. N. and Kirscher, U. (2023), Mid-Proterozoic day length stalled by tidal resonance. Nature Geoscience 16: 567-569.
• Scaife, A. A., Hermanson, L., van Niekerk, A., Andrews, M., Baldwin, M. P., Belcher, S., Bett, P., Comer, R. E., Dunstone, N. J., Geen, R., Hardiman, S. C., Ineson, S., Knight, J., Nie, Y., Ren, H.-L. and Smith, D. (2024), Long-range predictability of extratropical climate and the length of day. Nature Geoscience 15: 789-793.
• Author unknown, BBC (2011), Why the Moon is getting further away from Earth (online) (Accessed 30/04/2024).

The record for the tallest tree is a sequoia that is just over 116 metres tall. Would this be different on other planets? Find out in today's episode- plus an appearance from the transpiration stream and transpiration.

Sources for this episode:

• Cox, B. and Cohen, A. (2013), Wonders of Life. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
• Harberle, R. M. (2015), SOLAR SYSTEM/SUN, ATMOSPHERES, EVOLUTION OF ATMOSPHERES | Planetary Atmospheres: Mars. Chapter in: Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences (2nd edition): p. 168-177.
• Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Nazari-Sharabian, M., Aghababaei, M., Karakouzian, M. and Karami, M. (2020), Water on Mars- A Literature Review. Galaxies 8(2): 40.
• Owen, T., Biemann, K., Rushneck, D. R., Biller, J. E., Howarth, D. W. and Lafleur, A. L. (1977), The Composition of the Atmosphere at the Surface of Mars. Journal of Geophysical Research 82(28): 4635-4639.
• Author unknown, Guiness World Records (date unknown), Tallest tree living (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).
• Author unknown, NASA (date unknown), Mars Facts (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Atmospheric pressure (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).

We catch up with Darwin and see what exactly he got up to in the Empire of Brazil!

Sources for this episode:

• Cardoso, D., et al. (2020), Amazon plant diversity revealed by a taxonomically verified species list. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 114(40): 10695-10700.
• Darwin, C. (1945), The Voyage of the Beagle. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
• Hubbell, S. P., He, F., Condit, R., Borda-de-Água, L., Kellner, J. and ter Steege, H. (2008), How many tree species are there in the Amazon and how many of them will go extinct? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105(suppl. 1): 11498-11504.
• Martin, P. A. (1933), Slavery and Abolition in Brazil. The Hispanic American Historical Review 13(2): 151-196.
• Ray, J. L. (2009), The abolition of slavery and the end of international war. International Organization 43(3): 405-439.
• Ronque, M. U. V., Fourcassié, V. and Oliveira, P. S. (2018), Ecology and field biology of two dominant Camponotus ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Brazilian savannah. Journal of Natural History 52(3-4): 237-252.
• Author unknown, Metric Conversions (date unknown), Feet to Meters conversion: ft to m calculator (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Rainforest Trust (date unknown), Amazon Basin (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Our World in Data (date unknown), Average annual precipitation (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).
• Author unknown, United States Senate (date unknown), The Senate Passes the Thirteenth Amendment (online) (Accessed 29/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Porcupinefish (online) (Accessed 22/04/2024).

As we’ll soon be reaching 100 episodes, I was wondering whether you would be interested in an Ask Me Anything (or AMA) when we get there. If so, feel free to send me questions to the show’s email address! I look forward to hearing from you.

This update also tentatively raises the idea of a Biopedia Patreon. Is this something you would be interested in? I have no idea how it would work at present, so feedback on this or whether you would be interested in the first place is welcome. Again, reach out to the email address, or else there is a poll available on the YouTube community on the subject.

First cousins, second cousins, fourth cousins three times removed… What's the difference? And if all three billion letters of your genetic code were unique, how distant a relation would you have to have before the two of you didn't share any of these original letters anymore? This scenario has some assumptions, but we'll use it to explore how large the human genome is!

Sources for this episode:

• Berger, B. M. (1960), How Long Is a Generation? The British Journal of Sociology 11(1): 10-23.
• Bistritzer, T., Fried, K., Lahat, E., Dvir, M. and Goldberg, M. (1993), Congenital contractual arachnodactyly in two double second cousins: possible homozygosity. Clinical Genetics 44: 15-19. (for second cousins, nothing except abstract)
• Matsamura, S. and Forster, P. (2008), Generation time and effective population size in Polar Eskimos. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275: 1501-1508.
• McDermott, M., Genealogy Explained (2022, updated 2024), What are Double First Cousins (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Skipper, M. (2012), User’s guide to the human genome. Nature Reviews Genetics 13: 678.
• Author unknown, Ancestry (date unknown), What is a second, third, or fourth cousin- or a cousin once removed? (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Family tree of English monarchs (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Family tree of the British royal family (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).
• Author unknown, 23 and Me (date unknown), Average Percent DNA Shared Between Relatives (online) (Accessed 24/04/2024).

Twenty-one episodes ago, we discussed the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years before the present. However, this isn't the only mass extinction event the Earth has witnessed. Let's go back to 252 million years ago and watch the Great Dying unfold…

Sources for this episode:

• Campbell, N. A., Urry, L. A., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V. and Reece, J. B. (2018), Biology: a global approach, 11th edition (Global Edition), Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.
• Clennett, C., Locke, J. and Jackson, T. (editorial consultants) (2023), How Biology Works. LonondM Darling Kindersley Ltd.
• Cohen, K.M., Finney, S.C., Gibbard, P.L. & Fan, J.-X. (2013; updated) The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204.
• Cui, Y. and Kump, L. R. (2015), Global warming and the end-Permian extinction event: Proxy and modeling perspectives. Earth-Science Reviews 149: 5-22.
• Herron, J. C., and Freeman, S. (2015), Evolutionary Analysis. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
• Hochuli, P. A., Hermann, E., Vigran, J. O., Bucher, H.and Weissert, H. (2010), Rapid demise and recovery of planet ecosystems across the end-Permian extinction event. Global and Planetary Change 74: 144-155.
• Kaiser, M. J., Attrill, M. J., Jennings, S., Thomas, D. N., Barnes, D. K. A., Brierley, A. S., Graham, N. A. J., Hiddink, J. G., Howell, K. and Kaartokallio, H. (2020), Marine Ecology: Processes, Systems and Impacts (3rd edition°; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Twitchett, R. J. (2007), The Lilliput effect in the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction event. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 252: 132-144.

It's the fourth of seven episodes of Island Folk! Among subjects of discussion are reindeer on South Georgia, invasion and extinction on islands more broadly and a discussion of the Caribbean. Feel free to give the show a listen at the link below: