Biopedia

I have become a father! My firstborn daughter is here and is of course wonderful. However, the fact of her existence means that there may be some disruption to the podcast schedule. Thank you for your understanding!

As part of a triple feature with After Alexander and Autocrat, we will be discussing the olive tree today. Let's explore the biology and ecology of a tree species that is central to a myth covered on Autocrat, in a city which After Alexander explores the history of…

Sources for this episode:

TBA

Happy 2026! Or rather- 12,026. At least, according to one interpretation. It has been suggested that the Anno Domini/Common Era system of timekeeping has some limitations. So, Cesare Emiliani created a calendar in 1993 to combat these issues. Get ready to discuss a calendar which begins when human civilisations and farming did- at midnight, 1st January, 10,000 BCE. After that, we'll take you on a whistlestop and incomplete tour of what some of human history might look like represented in that calendar.

Sources for this episode:

• Bevan, E. R. (1902), The House of Seleucus (Volume I). London: Methuen Publishing Ltd.
• Clayton, P. A. (2006), Chronicle of the Pharaohs. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Emiliani, C (1993), Calendar reform. Nature 366: 716.
• Emiliani, C. (1994), Calendar reform for the year 2000. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 75(19): 218.
• Goldsworthy, A. (2023), The Eagle and the Lion: Rome, Persia and an Unwinnable Conflict. London: Head of Zeus Ltd.
• Humprehys, C. J. and Waddington, W. G. (1983), Dating the Crucifixion. Nature 306: 743- 746.
• Kelly, J. N. D. (1996), Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Littlewood, I. (2002), The Rough Guide History of France. London: Rough Guides Ltd.
• Marks, A. and Tingay, G. (date unknown), Romans. London: Usborne Publishing.
• Matyszak, P. (2008), Chronicle of the Roman Republic. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Paludan, A. (1998), Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Scarre, C. (2012), Chronicle of the Roman Emperors. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Shepard, J. (ed.) (2019), The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c.500- 1492. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Warnes, D. (2009), Chronicle of the Russian Tsars. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
• Weir, A. (1996), Britain’s Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. London: Pimlico.
• Woolf, A. (2014), A Short History of the World. London: Arcturus Publishing Ltd.
• Author unknown (date unknown), Genealogy of the Emperors of Japan. Kunaicho: Japanese government webpage.

It goes without saying that the Red Planet is very different to our own world. For one thing, the day and year length of Mars differ from those experienced on Earth. So how would hypothetical colonists deal with this? On our last episode of 2025, let's discuss the Suran calendar- originating from a paper from the 1990s and dealing with this exact question.

Sources for this episode:

TBA

A silly question today- if you were to add together all of the X chromosomes of all of the people in the world, what would their total mass be? To answer this, we are going to have to estimate the mass of an X chromosome, examine how many cells are in a human body, and just how many people there are in the world…

Sources for this episode:

• Bhartiya, A., Batey, D., Cipiccia, S., Shi, X., Rau, C., Botchway, S., Yusuf, M. and Robinson, I. K. (2021), X-ray Phytography Imaging of Human Chromosomes after Low-Dose Irradiation. Chromosome Research 29: 107-126.
• Ross, M. T., et al. (2005), The DNA sequence of the human X chromosome. Nature 434: 325-337.
• 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.
• Tartaglia, N., Cordeiro, L., Howell, S., Wilson, R. and Janusz, J. (2010), The Spectrum of the Behavioural Phenotype in Boys and Adolescents 47,XXY (Klinefelter Syndrome). Pediatric Endocrinology Reviews 8(1): 151-159.
• Author unknown, Bionumbers (date unknown), Mass of X and Y chromosomes (online) (Accessed 14/12/2025).
• Author unknown, Worldometer, (date unknown), World Population Clock (online) (Accessed 14/12/2025).
• Author unknown, UNICEF (date unknown), How many children are there in the world? (online) (Accessed 14/12/2025).

Generation Beta is, according to futurist Mark McCrindle, just starting to appear in the world. So, today, let's examine the generations that have been given a label in societal consciousness since the Lost Generation all the way back in the late 1800s.

Sources for this episode:

TBA

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?

Sources for this episode:

TBA