Why can some animals regrow limbs while others can’t? Will understanding regeneration in other vertebrates help us regrow arms one day?Our intern team has taken over the channel to talk about one of their favorite biology topics, limb regeneration! In the episode, Dayna and Kyle break down the mechanisms of regeneration and discuss why some animals can regrow organs and limbs, and why the evolutionary paths of other animals may have led to alternative responses to limb loss.Thanks for listening! This episode of Little Biology was written and presented by Dayna De La Cruz and Kyle Smith. If you enjoyed it, please give them a hand!Cover photo: Keating Shahmehri 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.comWhere does biological innovation come from? Why do some innovations wait millions of years for their spotlight?Life must constantly innovate for evolution to occur, but many forms of biological innovation often lie dormant, sometimes for millions of years. In this episode, we speak to Andreas Wagner about his recent book, Sleeping Beauties: The Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture. Andreas is a professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. In the book, Andreas explains how novel traits sometimes have to wait until the environment changes to become useful, leading to speciation or offering novel solutions to ecological problems. These long fuses are also evident in our own history, namely the life-changing technologies that we invent but don’t fully exploit until the right social or economic context arises.Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat makes a pest? Why are some animals revered in one culture and vilified in another? How do our ways of life bring us into conflict versus companionship, and what do these interactions mean for us and them?Rats, squirrels, coyotes, pigeons...often, we view animals like these as pests. We usually don't like them, even try to get rid of them…but what makes a species a pest? On this episode, we talk with Bethany Brookshire about her new book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Bethany is a science journalist interested in human-animal conflict, and in the book, she tells the story of how both historical and cultural context explains why the same animal species can be viewed as a friend or foe. Bethany is also the host of the podcast Science for the People - check them out!Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat is inherency? What are the potential flaws with our understanding of biological function?On this episode, we talk with Stuart Newman, professor at New York Medical College. In his recent paper, “Inherency and agency in the origin and evolution of biological functions,” Stuart argues against the commonly held view that functions of traits necessarily arise from the process of natural selection. He instead advocates for an alternative called inherency, which suggests that groups of cells naturally possess traits that determine their potential morphology, which can then be modified further by natural selection. He supports this idea with examples of extant species - placozoans and sponges - that closely resemble the earliest animals. We discuss Stuart’s provocative paper, the concept of inherency, and its potential role in evolution.Cover art by Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on ⁠our website⁠.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat is NEON? What hopes and concerns do we have for large-scale research projects in ecology?On this episode of Big Biology, we talk about the challenges of doing…big biology! The National Ecological Observatory Network, or NEON, is a US National Science Foundation-funded project that has started collecting massive amounts of data from terrestrial and freshwater habitats across a network of sites distributed across the United States. Scott Collins, a professor at the University of New Mexico, and Alan Knapp, a professor at Colorado State University, have been involved in developing, promoting, and sometimes criticizing NEON. We discussed with them the successes and potential of NEON and the major challenges and controversies that it has faced.  We also talked about how they believe NEON can have positive impacts in the future.Cover art by Keating Shahmehri. Find a transcript of this episode on ⁠our website⁠.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comBig Biology celebrates its 100th episode! You’re only 100 once, and though we hope there will be many more episodes to come, we wanted to celebrate this milestone with something special. A recurring theme from many of our conversations with guests on the show has been agency. This is a BIG and oftentimes controversial topic in biology, and in this episode we try to pull together the different threads from our past guests’ approaches to agency and discuss what agency means and why we think it is so important for us to better understand it. We also hear from our recent addition to the podcast team, Cameron Ghalambor, who has very different thoughts on agency to Art and Marty, making for a fascinating discussion. Of course, we don’t have all the answers, but that’s never been what this show is about. It’s an invitation to think and converse about the biggest questions in biology. And that’s exactly what we do here.Cover art by Keating ShahmehriDonate to our spring fund drive! Or, become a patron! Or both – hey, we’re not picky!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comOn this episode, we take a break from the regular format to talk with Itai Yanai and Martin Lercher of The Night Science Podcast, a show that explores the creative side of science with guests from across the globe. Itai is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the NYU School of Medicine, and Martin is a professor in both the Institute for Computer Science and the Department of Biology at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. We had a great time chatting with them about our respective podcast experiences, trading tips and reflecting on our passion for science communication and the ways that it has impacted our own research.Cover art by Keating ShahmehriDonate to our spring fund drive! Or, become a patron! Or both! – hey, we’re not picky!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat is the “infinitesimal model”? How has our understanding of complex traits changed recently?On this episode, we talk with Nick Barton, an evolutionary quantitative geneticist at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Quantitative genetics has changed a lot in the past 30 years, driven by massive advances in DNA sequencing power and by new statistical and computational approaches to harnessing the data flood. Nick works at the forefront of the field, developing and testing new theory, and we discuss both his research and his perspectives on these changes. We end by asking Nick about his advice for early career researchers who want to navigate the complex landscape composed of theory, computation, and data.Cover art by Keating ShahmehriDonate to our spring fund drive! Or, become a patron! Or both! – hey, we’re not picky!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat is mutation bias? How does it affect evolution?In this episode, we talk with Arlin Stoltzfus, a research fellow at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research. Arlin studies mutation bias – the idea that some types of mutations occur more often than others – and how these patterns can influence the evolutionary trajectories of populations. In the chat, we contrast this mutation-centric approach to evolution with more standard views in which selection does most of the creative heavy lifting. We center the talk around Arlin’s 2021 book - Mutation, Randomness, and Evolution, which offers a new conception of variation as a difference-maker in evolution. Looking forward, Arlin argues that a better understanding of mutation will make it easier to predict the origins and outcomes of different cancers and the evolution of infectious diseases and crop pests.Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhat are network motifs, and how and why do they matter to biological networks?On this episode, we talk with Uri Alon, systems biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, about biological networks. In the early 2000s, Uri discovered some of the fundamental characteristics of these networks and, since then, has worked to understand networks across different levels of biological organization. His work shows that, from genes to whole organisms, networks are filled with repeating patterns of connections known as network motifs, such as feedback and feedforward loops. We talk about how the motifs arise and what they mean for the performance and evolution of the systems in which they’re embedded. Moving farther afield, we also talk about how scientists can productively move into new areas, and how Uri teaches early-stage scientists to leap confidently into the unknown. And a bonus: Uri sings and plays guitar for us!Cover art: Keating Shahmehri