This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat is mutation bias and how can scientists study it? How does changing a populations mutation bias influence its evolutionary trajectory?In this episode, we talk with

This week on Big Biology we're sharing an episode from The Naked Scientists Podcast about how humans lost their tails.Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans do not have tails. It sets us apart from other primates, but suggests that our shared e

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comAt what levels does causation happen in biology? Are metaphors useful for understanding biology?In this episode, we talk with Phil Ball, a science writer who was also an

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comHow should biologists deal with the massive amounts of population genetic data that are now routinely available? Will AIs make biologists obsolete?In this episode, we tal

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comHow should we study complex biological networks? How do cells keep time and stay in sync? What does it mean for a network to be resilient?In this episode, we talk with Ro

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comHow do biologists strike a productive balance between descriptive natural history and manipulative experiments in the lab or field? Should we bring back species to areas

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat is an agent, and does an organism have to be conscious to be one? How does organismal agency affect evolution?In this episode, we talk with Samir Okasha, a Professor

On this episode, we talk with Alina Chan, postdoc at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and co-author with Matt Ridley of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 could have plausibly jumped into humans in Wuhan via one of two paths. T

How can we reconcile the evolutionary problem of cooperation? What can social amoebae tell us about the origins of multicellularity?In this episode, we talk to Joan Strassmann and David Queller, professors at Washington University in St. Louis, about th

If the tape of life were replayed, how recognizable would todays species and ecosystems be? How and why does power increase over evolutionary time? How have humans unleashed so much power, and what are the consequences of that power for life on Earth?I