Biopedia

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 Corneliu…

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…

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…

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 ha…

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 p…

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 t…

We know today that our planet Earth is billions of years old. However, the people of a few centuries ago would have been equally convinced it was only a few thousand years old. So what were some of t…

It was one of the oldest individual organisms to have lived. And yet, in 2006, its story would come to an end. To find out how, come and join us on this adaptation of a post on the Biopedia website i…

Tackling James Lovelock's most famous theorem is no easy task. However, that's exactly what we're going to do today. Join us for a breakdown of the Gaia Hypothesis, a discussion of altruism, a throwb…

As it turns out, Louis XIII of France and Drypetina of Pontus have something in common. They have hyperdontia, or too many teeth. Today, we go through the phenomena of hyperdontia, hypodontia and con…

An episode all about a suggested topic- the walrus! Let's explore how one species used to many, and the challenges the sole surviving species faces in the modern day...

Sources for this episode:

TBA

WE DID IT! 100 episodes. It feels crazy to say that the beginning of Biopedia in late 2020 is four and a half years ago when this episode comes out. Thank you all so much for listening and I look for…

Don't worry, you have not in fact stumbled onto a physics podcast. However, the Laws of Thermodynamics do have a rather significant connection to evolutionary biology. This is because, at first glanc…

Quick correction: I call the episode on sibling species episode 37 in the audio, but it's actually episode 47!

Way back in the early days of Biopedia, we discussed the concept of sibling species. Now…

2023 was a warm year. But let's put it into context. To do that, a 2024 study looked at temperature and tree core data to assemble summer temperatures all the way back to 1 CE. As for the result- the…

A bit of an unusual one this year- I was recently given a Dr Who book featuring Charles Darwin. So, let's examine the historical details of this novella and see how they represented Darwin. Have they…

Your number of ancestors double every generation. Two parents, four grandparents, and so on. If we compare these numbers to the total number of people alive on the planet as we go back in time, what …

For a podcast which has talked several times before about global warming and climate change, we haven't addressed fossil fuels yet. So, let's redress that today!

Sources for this episode:

• Hine, R.…

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…

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 consequ…