Biopedia

1-2% of the world's population have red hair. So, we're giving the phenomenon its own episode! Today, we discuss the gene/protein that causes red hair, as well as its psychological and possible medical effects…

Sources for this episode:

TBA

You asked, I delivered! In a sequel to our discussion in episode 58, we're going to shine a spotlight on two more thinkers during the Islamic Golden Age. Along the way we'll also see connections with later thinkers and a cameo from episode 69…

Sources for this episode:

• Guerber, H. A. (1929), The Myths of Greece & Rome: Their Stories Signification and Origin. London: George G. Harrap & Company Ltd.
• Kaack, L. H. and Katul, G. G. (2013), Fifty years to prove Malthus right. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(11): 4161-4162.
• Malik, A. H., Ziermann, J. M. and Diogo, R. (2018), An untold story in biology: the historical continuity of evolutionary ideas of Muslim scholars from the 8th century to Darwin’s time. Journal of Biological Education 52(1): 3-17.
• Waterman, A. M. C. (1987), On the Malthusian Theory of Long Swings. The Canadian Journal of Economics 20(2): 257-270.
• Author unknown (1888), The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the original tongues: and with the former translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty’s special command. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), al-Biruni (online) (Accessed 11/01/2024).

Darwin Day is upon us for the fifth time! To celebrate, let's follow Charles Darwin on the first part of his famous voyage between late 1831 and early 1832. We'll see him pour over cuttlefish, travel with veterans of the Napoleonic Wars and arrive in a young Brazilian Empire…

Sources for this episode:

• Bannerman, W. M., Lobban, R. A. and Shaw, C. S., Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), History of Cabo Verde (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024).
• Bethell, L. (1968), The Independence of Brazil and the Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade: Anglo-Brazilian Relations, 1822-1826. Journal of Latin American Studies 1(2): 115-147.
• Bieber, J. (2010), Imperial Brazil (1822-29). In: Holloway, T. H. (2010), A Companion to Latin American History. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Bunker, F. St. P., Brodie, J. A., Maggs, C. A. and Bunker, A. R. (2017), Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland (2nd edition). Plymouth: Wild Natural Press.
• Darwin, C. (1945), The Voyage of the Beagle. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd.
• Diamond, J. (2007), Easter Island Revisited. Science 317(5845): 1692-1694.
• Jezierski, M. T., Smith, W. J. and Clegg, S. M. (2023), The island syndrome in birds. Journal of Biogeography 00: 1-16.
• Litchfield, H. (ed.) (1915), Emma Darwin: A Century of Family Letters (Vol. II). New York: D. Appleton and Company.
• Martin, P. A. (1921), Causes of the Collapse of the Brazilian Empire. The Hispanic American Historical Review 4(1): 4-48.
• Whittaker, R. J. and Fernández-Palacios, J.-M. (2007), Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Charles II of England (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Robert FitzRoy (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024).
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Salvador, Bahia (online) (Accessed 08/02/2024).

A series of 5000 flowers pressed in the 16th century near Bologna have given scientists an opportunity to see human impacts and the rise of alien species. All while giving us an excuse to touch on what the Columbian exchange actually is…

Sources for this episode:

• Anteric, I., Basic, Z., Vilovic, K., Kolic, K. and Andjelinovic, S. (2014), Which Theory for the Origin of Syphilis is True? Journal of Sexual Medicine 11: 3112-3118.
• Buldrini, F., Alessandrini, A., Mossetti, U., Muzzi, E., Pezzi, G., Soldano, A. and Nascimbene, J. (2023), Botanical memory: five centuries of floristic changes revealed by a Renaissance herbarium (Ulisse Aldrovandi, 1551-1586). Royal Society Open Science 10(11): 230866.
• Guerra, F. (1993), The European-American Exchange. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 15: 313-327.
• Hancock, J. F. (2023), Fifty Years Later- The Legacy of Alfred Crosby’s “The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492”. Economic Botany 77(1): 82-102.
• Harper, K. N., Zuckerman, M. K., Harper, M. L., Kingston, J. D. and Armelagos, G. J. (2011), The Origin and Antiquity of Syphilis Revisited: An Appraisal of Old World Pre-Columbian Evidence for Treponemal Infection. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 54: 99-133.
• Lees, D., Lopez-Vaamonde, C., Augustin, S., Biodiversity Heritage Library, Field Museum et al. (2009), Cameraria ohridella Deschka & Dimic 1986. Encyclopedia of Life, MacArthur Foundation, Sloan Foundation. Ffhal-02824036.
• McCook, S. (2011), The neo-Columbian exchange: the second conquest of the Greater Caribbean, 1720-1930. Latin American Research Review: 46(S1): 11-31.
• Milliken, W., Walker, B. E., Howes, M.-J. R., Forest, F. and Lughadha, E. N. (2021), Plants used traditionally as antimalarials in Latin America: Mining the tree of life for potential new medicines. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 279: 114221.
• Sanz-Biset, J., Campos-de-la-Cruz, J., Epiquién-Rivera, M. A. and Cañigueral, S. (2009), A first survey on the medicinal plants of the Chazuta valley (Peruvian Amazon). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 122: 333-362.
• Stefanaki, A., Walter, T. and van Andel, T. (2022), Tracing the introduction history of the tulip that went wild (Tulipa sylvestris) in sixteenth-century Europe. Nature Scientific Reports 12: 9786.
• Weston, P., the Guardian (2023), ‘Inestimable importance’: 500-year-old cache of pressed flowers reveals new secrets (online) (Accessed 17/11/2023).

It takes our sun 220 million years to orbit around the middle of our home galaxy. But that kind of timescale can be difficult to picture. So, using the International Stratigraphy Chart as a guidance for what different time periods mean in terms of millions of years, let's zoom out to the scale of a galactic year and see what happened in Earth's prehistory one cycle ago, two and so on.

Sources for this episode:

• Bach, J. R. (2013), Paradigm paralysis in the management of neuromuscular disease. Journal of Personalized Medicine 11: 24-29.
• Bottjer, E. J. (2005), The Early Evolution of Animals. Scientific American 293(2): 42-47.
• Brusatte, S. L., Butler, R. J., Barrett, P. M., Carrion, M. T., Evans, D. C., Lloyd, G. T., Mannion, P. D., Norell, M. A., Peppe, D. J., Upchurch, P. and Williamson, T. E. (2015), The extinction of the dinosaurs. Biological Reviews 90: 628-642.
• Cameron, G. G. (1968), Zoroaster the Herdsman. Indo-Iranian Journal 10(4): 261-281.
• Clack, J. A. (2006), Devonian climate change, breathing, and the origin of the tetrapod stem group. Integrative and Comparative Biology 47(4): 510-523.
• Cohen, K. M., Finney, S. C., Gibbard, P. L. and Fan, J.-X. (2013; updated). The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204.
• Downs, J. P., Daeschler, E. B., Jenkins, F. A. and Shubin, N. H. (2008), The cranial endoskeleton of Tiktaalik roseae. Nature 455: 925-929.
• Ellery, A. (2003), Book Review: Impossible Extinction- Natural catastrophes and the supremacy of the microbial world. International Journal of Astrobiology 2(2): 153-154.
• Galway-Whitham, J. and Stringer, G. (2018), How did Homo sapiens evolve? Science 360(6395): 1296-1298.
• Hazen, R. M. (2010), How Old is Earth, and How Do We Know? Evolution: Education and Outreach 3: 198-205.
• Hess, F. L. (1925), The Age of the Earth. The Scientific Monthly 20(6): 597-602.
• Kemp, B. and Zink, A. (2012), Life in Ancient Egypt: Akhenaten, the Amarna Period and Tutankhamun. RCC Perspectives No. 3- Sickness, Hunger, War and Religion: Multidisciplinary Perspectives: 9-24.
• Kvĕt, R. (1991), Complete Periodical Geological Time Table. GeoJournal 24(4): 417-420.
• Kvĕt, R. (1995), On the Dependence of Life Evolution on Geotectonic Stages. GeoJournal 37(4): 413-417.
• Lemberg, J. B., Daeschler, E. B. and Shubin, N. H. (2021), The feeding system of Tiktaalik roseae: an intermediate between suction feeding and biting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118(7): e2016421118.
• MacIver, M. A., Schmitz, L., Mutan U., Murphey, T. D. and Mobley, C. D. (2020), Massive increase in visual range preceded the origin of terrestrial vertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America: E2375-E2384.
• Meiri, S. (2022), Population sizes of T. rex cannot be precisely estimated. Frontiers of Biogeography 14(2): e53781.
• Roney, J. C. (2017), 1776, Viewed from the West. Journal of the Early Republic 37(4): 655-700.
• Sereno, P. C. (1997), The Origin and Evolution of Dinosaurs. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 25: 435-489.
• Vandepoele, K., De Vos, W., Taylor, J. S., Meyer, A. and Van de Peer, Y. (2004), Major events in the genome evolution of vertebrates: Paranome age and size differ considerably between ray-finned fishes and land vertebrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101(6): 1638-1643.
• Vittinghof, F. (1985), Reviewed Work(s): The Roman Empire 27 B. C. – A. D. 476. A Study in Survival by Chester G. Starr. Gnomon 57 Bd., H. 6: 572-574.
• Zhuralev, A. Y. and Wood, R. A. (2018), The two phases of the Cambrian Explosion. Scientific Reports 8: 16656.
• Życiński, J. (2006), Ethics in medical technologies: The Roman Catholic viewpoint. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience 13: 518-523.

Most people will have come across this term before, but what does it actually mean? Today, we'll be dissecting the terms microbiome and microbiota and looking at what can impact them.

Sources for this episode:

• Amon, P. and Sanderson, I. (2017), What is the microbiome? Archives of Disease in Childhood- Education and Practice 102-258-261.
• Cremon, C., Barbaro, M. R., Ventura, M. and Barbara, G. (2018), Pre- and probiotic overview. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 43: 87-92.
• Kim, H., Sitarik, A. R., Woodcroft, K., Johnson, C. C. and Woratti, E. (2019), Birth Mode, Breastfeeding, Pet Exposure and Antibiotic Use: Associations With the Gut Microbiome and Sensitization in Children. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports 19: 22.
• Mariat, D., Firmesse, O., Levenez, F., Guimarăes, V. D., Sokol, H., Doré, J., Corthier, G. and Furet, J.-P. (2009), The Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio of the human microbiota changes with age. BMC Microbiology 9:123.
• Rautava, S. (2016), Early microbial contact, the breast milk microbiome and child health. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 7(1): 5-14.
• Rees, T., Bosch, T. and Douglas, A. E. (2018), How the microbiome challenges our concept of self. PLoS Biology 16(2): e2005358.
• Sender, R., Fuchs, S. and Milo, R. (2016), Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body. PLoS Biology 14(8): e1002533.
• Tojo, R., Suárez, A., Clemente, M. G., de los Reyes-Gavilán, C. G., Margolles, A., Gueimonde, M. and Ruas-Madiedo, P. (2014), Intestinal microbiota in health and disease: Role of bifidobacteria in gut homeostasis. World Journal of Gastroenterology 20(41): 15163-15176.
• Vongsa, R., Hoffman, D., Shepard, K. and Koenig, D. (2019), Comparative study of vulva and abdominal skin microbiota of healthy females with high and average BMI. BMC Microbiology 19:16.
• Author unknown, NHS (date unknown), Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (online) (Accessed 16/11/2023).

Saint Helena is an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, perhaps most famous as the final residence of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814 and again briefly in 1815. However, there is also plenty of interesting ecology and anthropogenic impact to talk about. Join myself and my co-host on an old episode of Island Folk to find out more!

The episode can be found at the following link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yP66nlH0ReAaZUWETXEHp?si=e894e255600c4bc0

Hope you enjoy!

This episode discusses what it says on the tin- two different models of the pace at which evolution happens. Punctuated equilibrium comes to us courtesy of Niles Eldredge and Steve Gould in the 1970s. We won't do a deep dive on which model is considered correct in this episode. However, punctuated equilibrium was appropriated by creationists in the 1980s as this issue became political- leading us to a convenient tangent on what exactly creationist philosophy is.

Sources TBA.

Woolly mammoths are an iconic feature of the Ice Age in popular imagination. However, on today's episode, we will also see that they are the basis of a fun fact that may change your perception of the past…

Sources for this episode:

• Ashman, D., Nature (2000), The sky was the limit for the Pyramid builders (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].
• Bartlett, C. (2014), The Design of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Nexus Network Journal 16: 299-311.
• Clayton, P. A. and Price, M. J. (eds.) (2002), The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. London and New York: Routledge.
• The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2023), Pyramid (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].
• Fernie, J. D. (2004), Marginalia: Astronomy and the Great Pyramid. American Scientist 92(5): 406-409.
• Foster, K. P. (2014), The Hanging Gardens of Nineveh. IRAQ 66: 207-220.
• Haynes, G. (2002), The catastrophic extinction of North American mammoths and mastodons. World Archaeology 33(3): 391-416.
• Hofreiter, M. and Lister, A. (2006), Mammoths. Current Biology 16(10): R347-R348.
• Miller, J. H. and Simpson, C. (2022), When did mammoths go extinct? Nature 612: E1-E3.
• Spence, K. (2000), Ancient Egyptian chronology and the astronomical orientation of the pyramids. Nature 408: 320-324.
• Vartanyan, S., Arslanov, K., Karhu, J., Possnert, G., & Sulerzhitsky, L. (2008), Collection of radiocarbon dates on the mammoths (Mammuthus Primigenius) and other genera of Wrangel Island, northeast Siberia, Russia. Quaternary Research, 70(1), 51-59.
• Wee, Y. K., World Atlas (2019), Did Cleopatra Really Live Closer In Time To The First Lunar Landing Than The Great Pyramids? (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Radiocarbon dating (online) [Accessed 10/10/2023].

A throwaway comment on Big Bang Theory got me thinking- could hybrid animals such as the griffin and the hippogriff be possible from a biological viewpoint? Using these two examples, we will explore the chromosome number of hybrid animals and see what it means for our mythical friends…

Sources for this episode:

• Ewart, J. C. (1910), Are Mules Fertile? Nature 2143(85): 106.
• Geldenhuys, M. E. (1989), Die kariotipering van di lieu (Panthera leo). Journal of the South African Veterinary Association 60(1): 41-49.
• Johnson, F. (1976), Mythical Beasts Coloring Book. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
• Mead, D., Ogden, R., Meredith, A., Peniche, G., Smith, M., Corton, C., Oliver, K., Skelton, J., Betteridge, E., Doulcan; J., Holmes, N., Wright, V., Loose, M., Quail, M. A., McCarthy, S. A., Howe, K.,Chow, W., Torrance, J., Collins, J., Challis, R., Durbin, R. and Blatter, M. (2021), The genome sequence of the European golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos chrysaetos Linnaeus 1758 (version 1; peer review: 3 approved). Wellcome Open Research 6: 112.
• Rodriguez, M., Understanding Genetics, The Tech Interactive (2007), Chimeras, Mosaics, and Other Fun Stuff: Why can't mules breed? I understand that a horse and a donkey make a mule but why can't 2 mules have a baby mule? (online) (Accessed 29/07/2023).
• Rosen, B. (2009), Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
• Ryder, O. A. (1993), Przewalski`s Horse: Prospects for Reintroduction into the Wild. Conservation Biology 7(1): 13-15.
• Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Golden eagle (online) (Accessed 20/07/2023).