New Books in Biology and Evolution
Interviews with biologists and evolutionary scientists about their new books
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 54 minutes
- Episodes
- 445
- Years Active
- 2009 - 2025
Andrew Jones, "How Kant Matters for Biology: A Philosophical History" (U Wales Press, 2023)
Kant denied biology the status of a proper science, yet his account of the organism profoundly influenced a range of intellectual disciplines.
Andrew Jones's How Kant Matters for Biology: A Philosop…
01:03:08 |
Fri 23 Jun 2023
The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable
Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became en…
00:07:45 |
Tue 20 Jun 2023
Prehension: The Hand and the Emergence of Humanity
Prehension is a hymn to the hand. In Prehension, Colin McGinn links questions from science to philosophical concerns to consider something that we take for granted: the importance of the hand in ever…
00:20:54 |
Mon 19 Jun 2023
Han Yu, "The Curious Human Knee" (Columbia UP, 2023)
Where would we be without the knee? This down-to-earth joint connecting the thigh and the lower leg doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Yet, as The Curious Human Knee (Columbia UP, 2023) revea…
00:55:14 |
Fri 09 Jun 2023
Athene Donald, "Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Why are girls discouraged from doing science? Why do so many promising women leave science in early and mid-career? Why do women not prosper in the scientific workforce?
Not Just for the Boys: Why We…
00:36:45 |
Wed 07 Jun 2023
Jaime Green, "The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination and Our Vision of the Cosmos" (Hanover Square Press, 2023)
In this episode we talk to Jaime Green about her superb cultural and scientific exploration of alien life and the cosmos. It examines how the possibility of life on other planets shapes our understan…
00:56:37 |
Mon 29 May 2023
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Split and Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
In Split & Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation (University of Chicago Press, 2023), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, director emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, i…
00:48:34 |
Sat 20 May 2023
The Future of the Human Heart: A Discussion with Vincent M. Figueredo
Long considered the most important of all organs, the human heart has fascinated artists and scientists alike. Listen to cardiologist Vincent Figueredo discuss knowledge of and attitudes towards the …
00:39:20 |
Fri 19 May 2023
Kate Clancy, "Period: The Real Story of Menstruation" (Princeton UP, 2023)
Menstruation is something half the world does for a week at a time, for months and years on end, yet it remains largely misunderstood. Scientists once thought of an individual's period as useless, an…
00:28:21 |
Mon 15 May 2023
Pharmacological Histories Ep. 2: Mikkael A. Sekeres on the Drugs Fighting Leukemia
This episode offers an insight into the work of leading cancer specialist and author of When Blood Breaks Down, Mikkael A. Sekeres. 1 in 2 people will develop cancer in their lifetime, but thankfully…
00:33:13 |
Tue 09 May 2023
Do You Have Imposter Syndrome?
Why do so many students and academics worry that they are imposters? Is it normal to experience this kind of self-doubt? This episode explores:
The difference between imposter syndrome and imposter …
00:53:47 |
Thu 04 May 2023
The Future of Germs: A Discussion with Jonathan Kennedy
Have germs or humans done the most to shape the world’s history? Did Homo Sapiens get the better of the Neanderthals because of superior brainpower or because of better resistance to some infectious …
01:02:01 |
Fri 28 Apr 2023
Christopher J. Preston, "Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals" (MIT Press, 2023)
The news about wildlife is dire—more than 900 species have been wiped off the planet since industrialization. Against this bleak backdrop, however, there are also glimmers of hope and crucial lessons…
00:50:15 |
Sat 08 Apr 2023
David Rothenberg, "Whale Music: Thousand Mile Songs in a Sea of Sound" (Terra Nova Press, 2023)
Whale song is an astonishing world of sound whose existence no one suspected before the 1960s. Its discovery has forced us to confront the possibility of alien intelligence--not in outer space but ri…
00:53:31 |
Tue 04 Apr 2023
Brian Villmoare, "The Evolution of Everything: The Patterns and Causes of Big History" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Big History seeks to retell the human story in light of scientific advances by such methods as radiocarbon dating and genetic analysis. Brian Villmoare's book The Evolution of Everything: The Pattern…
00:59:36 |
Mon 03 Apr 2023
Life Extension Therapies
The story of the Fountain of Youth is as old as history itself. Herodotus, the father of ancient Greek history, wrote of a mythical spring that extended the life of its bathers. Today, biotech entrep…
01:08:13 |
Wed 29 Mar 2023
Sara Rich, "Mushroom" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
They are the things we step on without noticing and the largest organisms on Earth. They are symbols of inexplicable growth and excruciating misery. They are grouped with plants, but they behave more…
00:44:16 |
Sat 25 Mar 2023
The Future of Genes and Equality: A Discussion with Kathryn Paige Harden
If your genes make you better suited to succeed, is that fair? And if not, can anything be done about it? Kathryn Paige Harden – professor psychology at University of Texas in Austin – tells Owen Ben…
00:36:43 |
Wed 22 Mar 2023
The Evolution of Language
Samuel Jay Keyser, Editor-in-Chief of Linguistic Inquiry, has shared a campus with Noam Chomsky for 40-odd years via MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. The two colleagues sat down in Mr.…
00:37:04 |
Sat 11 Mar 2023
Measure for Measure Episode 0: Birds
Could you pick a white-breasted nuthatch out of a lineup? We explore the value - and limits - of birdwatching, categorization, and measurement.
This episode was produced by Andrew Middleton and Liya …
00:04:26 |
Wed 01 Mar 2023
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