BioAudio
Welcome to BioAudio: The Teaching Podcast. After many years teaching biology in universities in the UK and in Canada I've come to the conclusion that we can do better than text books. I always want something more flexible, that can be updated with new topics and new discoveries. After years avoiding textbooks… I've created BioAudio a collection of discussions to accompany lectures in university biology courses . So let's ditch the textbook and just listen.
Episodes
34 episodes
Fossils, Rocks and Radioactive Clocks: How to date the ancient past
Today on the BioAudio podcast, it's all about dating! (no not that kind). Have you ever wondered how we figure out when things happened way in the past? When a scientist says "it's 100 million years old..." just how did they figure it out?<...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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37:22
What is a phylogeny for?
In this episode I"m joined by Bahar Roohshad, an undergraduate student from one of my classes to talk about phylogenetics. What are they? what are they for and how might we use on?
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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20:42
Biodiversity and Insect Declines
We keep hearing that biodiversity is in decline. But what does this mean? How is biodiversity distributed and what does "decline" look like? In this episode PhD student Hadil Elsayed talks to us about her experience tracking insects in some of ...
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Season 2
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Episode 13
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32:34
Beaver, Otters and Wolves: Ecosystem Engineers and Trophic Cascades
Today on the BioAudio podcast Prof Alex Mills returns to talk about how we recognize and describe an "ecological community" and the unique roll of keystone species, ecosystem engineers and apex predators. We will also talk about three famous tr...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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24:17
Disease Ecology: Parasites in Community Ecology
This week on the BioAudio podcast we are talking about disease ecology with Prof Dan Becker. It's a field that combines mathematical modeling, ecology, evolution, medicine, veterinary science... and he actually got into this as a cultural anthr...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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34:21
Natural vs Sexual Selection: Darwin's two great ideas
In this episode of the BioAudio podcast we revisit Natural Selection and Sexual Selection. I am joined by Professor Alex Mills and we are going to compare and contrast these two ideas. We talk about what kept Darwin up at night and how he solve...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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24:28
The Tangled Bank: Evolution and Species Interactions
In this episode Prof. Gordon Fitch explains the ways that individuals from two different species can interact in the wild, and the evolutionary consequences of this for species evolution and the stability of ecosystems. We cover competition, pr...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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27:19
How to read a scientific paper
In this episode Prof. Erin Fraser joins me for part two of our introduction to primary scientific literature. This time... did you know most of us don't read these "papers" from start to finish? in this episode we try to demystify the process a...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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18:45
What is scientific literature?
Today in the BioAudio podcast part one of a two part session on scientific literature. Today Prof. Erin Fraser joins me to talk about what we mean by "primary scientific literature". We will go through the basic structure of a scientific "paper...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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28:39
Reproductive isolating barriers and modes of speciation
In this episode of the BioAudio podcast I'm joined by Christian Nakla, a former student in my senior evolution class, someone who always had a good question for me. Now i'm flipping our roll and he's going to help explain how barriers to reprod...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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24:14
What's a species? How do we define biological diversity
What is a species? A simple question that just about anyone can answer, and yet has been the source of endless debate for decades. Biological diversity just doesn't fit in nice neat little boxes no matter how much we search for a universa...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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23:30
Darwin's evidence for natural selection - an Encore Presentation
This is an encore presentation of the third episode I made of the BioAudio Podcast. I am re-posting the first three episodes form season 1 because they also set the stage for new content in Season 2. So before we get into new conversations, ple...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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30:05
Charles Darwin: the making of a scientific theory - an Encore Presentation
This is an encore presentation of the second episode I made of the BioAudio Podcast. Season 2 is an introduction of Evolution and Ecology. So before we get into new content, I am re-posting a conversation with Dr. Dave Hone on the life of Charl...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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30:56
Evolution before Darwin - an Encore Presentation
This is an encore presentation of the first episode I made of the BioAudio Podcast. Season 2 is an introduction of Evolution and Ecology. So we will start with an encore presentation of a discussion I had with Prof. Mark Vicari on the sorts of ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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29:16
Season 2 Introduction
An introduction to season two of the BioAudio podcast. Welcome.
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:14
Evolution inspires technology - of bird legs and heat pumps
In the final episode of this season of the BioAudio podcast we talk about counter current exchange - a low energy system used by birds, fish, diving mammals etc. to recycle heat, move oxygen out of water and into blood and even make it possible...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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31:25
Evolutionary Medicine: rethinking why we get sick
In this episode of the BioAudio podcast we take a look at the emerging field of evolutionary medicine. This discipline asks not "how should we cure X?" but "why are we susceptible to X in the first place, what adaptation has gone wrong?" and th...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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34:52
Hybridization - when species mix
In this episode of the BioAudio podcast Prof. Eryn McFarlane and I discuss the role of hybridization in evolutionary ecology, what they are, how they persist and what the consequences might be. Along the way we will talk about the influence of ...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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28:32
Conservation genetics: how to use molecular tools in management
In this episode of the BioAudio podcast Professor Christina Davy and I discuss (and sometimes debate) the role of genetic tools in applied conservation. We will talk about what information we can gain, how we might use it and how these methods ...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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40:03
What's a species, the strange case of the salamanders
The Ambsystoma salamanders of the great lakes region have the most peculiar mating system.. they are all females, but they steal the genomes from other related species to aid in reproduction. This "kleptogenesis" is ancient, probably o...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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26:03
The genetics and rapid evolution of invasive species
What makes a species invasive? Today on the BioAudio podcast my guest is Dr. Thais Bernos who is an expert in the genetics and genomics of invasive fish species. Her study subject is the tench fish introduced three times to Canada staring in th...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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24:17
Transposable Elements: half your genome, hardly understood
Did you know that about half your genome is made of small bits of DNA called transposable elements? These "genomic parasites" are not genes, and they are not there to help run your body... they are small selfish elements out only to replicate t...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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23:14
The RNA world hypothesis and the origin of life
After many episodes about evolution, you might wonder... how did this all get going? Where did life come from? How did life itself start? In this episode Jacob Fine, a graduate student with a passion for RNA biology, takes us on a journey more ...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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33:11
Life Histories and Alternative Reproductive Tactics
In this episode Prof. Charlyn Partridge and I talk about the evolution of reproductive tactics in sunfishes.
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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28:57
Evolution of the Genome
We normally talk about evolution of species - and the genome as a sort of inert and hardly changing thing... but the reality is quite different. Your genome is an amazingly complex things that also evolves. Here Prof. Ryan Gregory and I talk ab...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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32:55