Big Biology

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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit bigbiology.substack.comWhy do humans look so different from one another? Why do we have different types of hair and different skin colors? And what do these traits have to do with the concept of race?On this episode, we talk with Tina Lasisi, incoming professor at the University of Michigan, about variation in human hair structure and skin color. We talk about why such variation may have evolved, and how biologists are studying it. We also discuss the implications of her work for the concept of race. Tina encourages scientists and the public to be curious about (rather than afraid of) human diversity, as it’s an obvious part of our world that should be understood from multiple perspectives, including biological.Also be sure to check out the Preprints in Motion podcast here!Cover art by Keating Shahmehri

Happy holidays from the Big Biology team! As a bonus episode this week, we are sharing Art's recent interview with James Fodor on The Science of Everything podcast. Art and James discuss various topics in evolution and genetics, covering material that spans years of Big Bio conversations.Enjoy, and see you next year! 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 smallest number of genes that cells need to grow and reproduce? Is it possible to synthesize minimal genomes and insert them into cells? What do minimal genomes teach us about life?In this episode, we talk to John Glass, leader of the Synthetic Biology Group at the J. Craig Venter Institute. Over the past decade, Glass and colleagues developed techniques for manipulating and synthesizing entire bacterial genomes. Starting with Mycoplasma bacteria, which have very small genomes, they determined the minimal number of genes (473!) required to support life. They experimentally confirmed this number by synthesizing genomes from scratch, containing just the essential genes, and putting them into other bacteria whose genomes were removed. Cells in this lineage, called JCVI-syn3.0, grow and divide approximately like wildtype cells do.We talk with John about how they pulled it off and what this minimal genome tells us about life more generally. We also chat about the functions of essential genes and what so-called non-essential genes may do in the wild. Finally, we touch on what if anything minimal genomes say about the origin of life and on the group’s ongoing efforts to synthesize entire cells – not just genomes! – from scratch.Cover art by Keating Shahmehri