Big Biology

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhich animals are conscious, and how can we tell? Does it matter? Although many people think of insects as simple organisms that react in preprogrammed ways to their environments, scientists know increasingly that insect have subtle and complex forms of behavior and learning. But are they conscious?On this episode, we talk with Lars Chittka, a biologist at Queen Mary University of London who studies the evolution of sensory systems and cognition in insects. Lars studies how bumblebees and other insects solve complex problems, and his results show unequivocally that they are incredibly flexible and creative. They clearly are not organic robots.In Lars’s experiments, bees learn how to roll balls onto targets by watching other bees, they secure rewards by using tools, and they even plan for the future and store representations of objects in their minds. This last trait many scientists thought was restricted just to vertebrates.

This podcast was originally broadcast by Complexity, a podcast from the Santa Fe Institute on April, 20 2020.Big Biology has featured several scientists connected to the Santa Fe Institute, and now SFI has its own podcast called Complexity.You can listen to all of their episodes here: https://complexity.simplecast.com/This episode, as well as show notes, are available here: https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/29Complexity features wide-ranging conversations with the Santa Fe Institute’s scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and artists who are trying to understand the deepest mysteries of the universe.The show covers a huge range of topics, delving into social science or economics as often as biology. We really encourage you to check it outOn this podcast, host Michael Garfield and SFI President David Krakauer discuss a series of essays by SFI scientists that try to makes sense of what the world will look like after the coronavirus pandemic. You can read those essays here: https://www.santafe.edu/research/projects/transmission-sfi-insights-covid-19 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe

The first episode of season three is coming out later this week. Here's a taste of what's coming up.Right now, we're looking for a few interns to join our team. If you love Big Biology and you're interested in science communication send us an application at www.bigbiology.org/jobs This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comToday we’re replaying of our discussion with science writer David Quammen.We talked with him in 2018 about his most recent book, the Tangled Tree, which explores the influence of horizontal gene transfer on the evolution of life on Earth.But right now, it’s one of his previous books that is essential reading. In 2012, he published a book called Spillover that described the risk of new diseases jumping from wildlife to humans. Now, we’re seeing that scenario play out in a big way with the coronavirus pandemic.In May, he wrote an article in the New Yorker arguing that the U.S. has one of the worse coronavirus outbreaks in the world because it failed to learn from previous pandemics. You should definitely check out both books, and his recent article. Photo: Ronan Donovan

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comThis episode was originally published in 2018. It's one of our most popular episodes of all time, so we decided to run it again while we're in between seasons. Look for new Big Bio episodes in August. What is life? How did life arise from non-life? What did life look like at its origin?Tune into this podcast to hear Art and Marty talk with Sara Walker, an expert in astrobiology and theoretical physics at Arizona State University. They discuss how life might have arisen on Earth and why biologists and physicists should work together to find a theory of life.Her ideas could help decide what to do about artificial intelligence (SPOILER: The robots will take over, but it’s going to be OK). They might also help us find life on other planets.

How are early stage scientists pushing biology forward?  What’s it like to be a graduate student during a global pandemic?Over the last several months, we’ve been collecting short audio clips from biology students describing their research. Associate Producer Michael Levin spearheaded the project, which we called the Student Spotlight.On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with four students who submitted the best audio clips for that project. We talked about their science, and also asked them about the most important areas for future research, advice for future biology students and what it’s like to be a young scientist when a global pandemic is making the future uncertain.The episode features Andrew Burchill at Arizona State; Ruth Demree, who recently graduated from Vassar; and Jason Hagani and Laura Plimpton, both at Columbia This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigbiology.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat’s the slimiest fish on Earth? Why are they so slimy? And can we leverage our understanding of slime to make better bioengineered materials?In this episode we talk with Doug Fudge, an Associate Professor at Chapman University, about his research on hagfish slime. Over the past 20 years, Doug and his lab and collaborators have figured out how and why hagfish produce slime, how the slime’s remarkable properties emerge from its underlying chemistry, and whether the protein threads in slime can be used to make bio-inspired fabrics that are greener, better, and longer lasting.A significant portion of Doug’s work has been published in Journal of Experimental Biology, including this 2005 paper on the composition and structure of hagfish slime and this 2006 paper testing a key hypothesis about how hagfish use slime to defend themselves from predators. Fudge’s lab published recent papers on how slime glands refill after they eject their slimy contents and how they chemically stabilize coiled threads inside the glands before they are ejected. Papers in other journals explore how slime threads can be used to make bio-inspired fabrics and how slime threads are constructed and mature inside slime glands.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat can we learn from animals by constantly tracking their movements with transmitters? How can we use information from collectives of animals to study and predict disease spread, earthquakes, and outbreaks of pests? How do you transform a massive, international scientific idea into a reality?On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Martin Wikelski, the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior. Martin leads Project ICARUS, an international collaboration aiming to track thousands of tagged animals at once from space. We talked with him about the long road to getting the project off the ground and what will ultimately learn from this new and powerful tool.Photo: © MPIAB Jacob Stierle

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhy are amphibians across the world dying from a fungal infection? Where did the fungus come from? How does it kill and are populations adapting?On this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Craig Franklin, a biologist at the University of Queensland and the director of research for the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, about the history and distribution of the fungus, how it’s killing so many species, and what we can do to save them.Cover photo by Brian Gratwicke.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhere did the new coronavirus come from? How can we be on the lookout for new diseases emerging from animals? Now that the coronavirus has infected humans, what’s the best path forward? In this episode of Big Biology, we talk with Andy Dobson, a disease ecologist at Princeton University who studies epidemics like the current COVID-19 outbreak. We talked with him about the possible animal origins of the virus, the best way to control its spread and strategies to avoid the next pandemic. Andy emphasizes that we shouldn’t blame wildlife for the coronavirus outbreak. It’s human behavior that led to this problem, and it’s human behavior that’s going to have to change to avoid the next ones. This episode is dedicated to Robert May,