Biopedia

Today, we are going to examine a paper studying the impact both age at first pregnancy and the interval between pregnancies has on the probability of various negative outcomes associated with childbirth.

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Charles Darwin makes his way south from Rio de Janeiro to Maldonaldo and the south of South America. Along the way, he witnesses some local activities and has time to show off technological marvels to the locals.

NOTE: I have found out since recording that St Elmo's light or fire is a weather phenomenon in which plasma appears around anything with a structure like a rod in a vehicle, such as the mast of a ship or the wing of a plane (St. Elmo's fire Wikipedia 04/11/2025). I have also discovered that $2 in 1832 money is worth $75.34 in 2025 money ($2 in 1832 → 2025 | Inflation Calculator 04/11/2025).

Sources for this episode:

TBA

In a sort of unofficial Part II to our discussion in episode 112, we are going to examine the data from the 1790 US census focussed on the towns of Danbury and Brookfield in Fairfield County, Connecticut. We will be using the data for each household to answer two questions- does the ratio between males and females deviate significantly from 50:50? And what is the average family size?

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Something a bit different today- we are going to be following up from our discussion of namesaking and looking at suffix chains! Examples of links in such chains would include people like Theodore Roosevelt VII or John Smith III. Let’s look at some real-life data- including data from the 1790 US census- to ask one question: how common or rare is each new link in the chain?

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TBA

Today, we will be wiping out humanity to ask a simple question- what would happen if there really were only two people left to repopulate the planet? Let's meet our hypothetical protagonists Cornelius and Cornelia, and in the first part of this scenario we will examine how many children the pair could realistically have given certain assumptions.

Sources for this episode:

TBA

A few weeks ago in episode 108, we talked about the largest species of snake to ever exist. Well, today we are travelling to the other end of the size spectrum to talk about the smallest snake in the world. This is Tetracheilostoma carlae, the Barbados threadsnake- which was thought to have gone extinct until the year 2025…

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Throughout history, there have been several claims of unusual longevity. For example, Pliny the Elder mentions several cases of people claiming to be 140 in a first century CE census. Moreover, there is a man in England who supposedly died at the age of 169 in 1670. However, they don't quite compare to the case of Colestein Veglin from July 1876.

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Previous episodes of the podcast have established the precedent of examining specific species or taxa. On today's episode, we are going to examine a snake. Not just any snake- the biggest snake to have ever lived…

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TBA

Pascal's Triangle is a useful concept in binomial theorem. However, it also has uses in biology. Today, we use it to answer the question- if you have X number of kids in a family or randomly chosen people in a sample, what is the probability of ending up with at least Y males and/or Z females?

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Adam and Eve, Ask and Embla, Deucalion and Pyrrha… The cultures of the world seemingly love the idea of humanity descending from two founders. While this notion may not be in line with scientific thought, there are two individuals who everyone can trace either maternal or paternal ancestry to. Say hello to mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam…

Sources for this episode:

• Berta, P., Hawkins, J. R., Sinclair, A. H., Taylor, A., Griffiths, B. L., Goodfellow, P. N. and Fellous, M. (1990), Genetic evidence equating SRY and the testis-determining factor. Nature 348: 448- 450.
• Callaway, E. (2013), Nature News, Genetic Adam and Eve did not too far apart in time (online). (Accessed 18/10/2020).
• Chan, E. K. F., Timmermann, A., Baldi, B. F., Moore, A. E., Lyons, R. J., Lee, S.-S., Kalsbeek, A. M. F., Petersen, D. C., Rautenbach, H., Förtsch, H. E. A., Bornman, M. S. R. and Hayes, V. M. (2019), Human origins in a southern African palaeo-wetland and first migrations. Nature 575: 185- 189.
• Chiaroni, J., Underhill, P. A. and Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (2009), Y chromosome diversity, human expansion, drift and cultural evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 190(48): 20174- 20179.
• Fleischmann, T. (2019), The Norse Creation of the Cosmos. MFA, Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature.
• Fry, S. (2017), Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold. London: Michael Joseph Ltd (part of Penguin).
• Ingman, M., Kaessmann, H., Pääbo, S. and Gyllensten, U. (2000), Mitochondrial genome variation and the origin of modern humans. Nature 408: 708- 713.
• Nass, M. M. K. and Nass, S. (1963), Intramitochondrial fibers with DNA characteristics. The Journal of Cell Biology 10: 593- 611.
• Sykes, B. (2001), The Seven Daughters of Eve. London: Corgi Books (part of the Random House Group Ltd.
• Thain, M. and Hickman, M. (2004), The Penguin dictionary of biology, 11th edition, London, Penguin Books Ltd.
• Author unknown (2010), Holy Bible: International Children’s Bible (New Century Version). Milton Keynes: Authentic Media Limited.