BioTA Podcast

In this episode, we sink our teeth into the world of vampire bats and rabies. Two fearless researchers take us from their jungle field sites to the lab as they track how hungry bats can spread viruses, including rabies! They also share what to do if you ever encounter a bat, raccoon, or other suspicious critter lurking in your home or yard. It's a tale of blood, viruses, and the intersection of wildlife and human health.

From racehorses to fancy pigeons, Darwin saw selective breeding as humans applying one of nature's most powerful forces, evolution by natural selection, to change domesticated species. This episode explores how Darwin used evidence of what he called artificial selection to support his ideas on natural selection and evolution, how modern genetics backs him up, and why selection is constantly shaping the world around us.

In this Twilight Zone-inspired episode of BioTA, two biology students prepping for lab encounter a pair of unexpected space travelers who want help unraveling a mystery: Why do some bacteria defy antibiotics while others perish? Why do some plants tolerate herbicides while others shrivel? With a crash course in the concepts of genotypes and phenotypes, the students explain some of the basic principles that life on Earth follows (most of the time). 

This episode uses the sci-fi action film Jurassic Park as a springboard to explore fundamental concepts in genetics. While the film imagines resurrecting dinosaurs through ancient DNA, we break down the real science behind this film, clarifying what a genome is, how chromosomes organize DNA, and how genes function as trait-coding units with alleles as their variations. By separating cinematic fiction from reality, we can learn some genetics while uncovering what's scientifically possible, and what is purely Hollywood fantasy.

Once a global scourge, smallpox devastated millions before Edward Jenner's vaccine offered hope. But how do you deliver a life-saving cure to the farthest reaches of the world? In 1803, Spain launched the Balmis Expedition, a bold and ethically fraught mission to transport the vaccine across oceans. In this episode, we explore the science of viruses, vaccines, and immunity, while uncovering the surprising and unsettling story of La Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna.

CRIPSR-Cas9 technology allows scientists to edit genes with precision. But is this a beneficial tool or something more nefarious? In this episode, we conclude our conversation with Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, one of the scientists who discovered CRISPR, and dive into the applications, ethical conundrums, and challenges of this new genetic tool. He also issues a challenge to all scientists about our responsibilities to share our work with the rest of the world.

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology is one of the newest and most promising tools in science. But what is it? How does it work? And what are scientists doing with this technology that has been described as a molecular genetic scalpel? In this first of two episodes, we talk with Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, the first scientist to discover and publish results demonstrating what the CRISPR-Cas9 system can do, thereby opening the door for other scientists and discoveries.

While the terms citizen science and community science emerged and began gaining broad attention in the 1990s, the collaboration between scientists and the public has a rich history spanning over a century. Today, numerous citizen science projects covering a wide range of topics invite public participation. Innovative educators are now involving students to enhance STEM education and foster new forms of community engagement. Join us in this episode as we speak with experts to learn about citizen science and its transformative potential in communities, education, and beyond!

Apples are a household favorite, but have you ever wondered why some varieties are common, but others are rare, coveted heirlooms? Or thought about the epic journey that brought apples from their birthplace in Central Asia to orchards spanning the globe or maybe your own yard? And why don't we grow apple trees from seeds? We were curious too, which led us to invite Dr. Lisa Corwin and Amy Dunbar-Wallace onto BioTA to describe the thrilling story and science behind the Boulder Apple Tree Project, a citizen science initiative dedicated to discovering and safeguarding rare apple cultivars and preserving a living history of this beloved fruit.

What can an ancient bison skull tell us about human history? In this episode we talk with Dr. Leland Bement, an archaeologist from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey who helped in discovering the oldest intentionally painted artefact ever found in the US. Using techniques that included standard archaeological practices as well as interdisciplinary collaborations, Bement's team was not only able to figure out the story of the Cooper Bison Skull, but they also got a window into the past to learn more about the Folsom people who painted it. 

What does brushing your teeth have to do with the search for extraterrestrial life? To answer that question, you have to shrink down and explore the microscopic world of bacterial biofilms. In this episode three microbiologists will guide us through the world of these fascinating microbial communities by looking at what they are, how they impact our health, and how they may be similar to the life we are looking for in outer space.  

What does it mean to be a scientist? How do you think about yourself as a scientist? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Bryan Dewsbury to explore what scientific identity is and what he has learned about its development through his Science Education and Society research program at Florida International University. Dive into how they are working to improve STEM education for everyone and support a diverse, inclusive space for the next generation of scientists.  

What are amphibians, why are they important, and how could a fungus be threatening their existence? Is there anything we can do to help them? We asked Dr. Cameron Siler and Jessa Watters from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History to answer these questions and more to help us learn if there is an amphibian extinction apocalypse , its causes, and potential solutions. 

Bees are important pollinators, and people often talk about saving them. But what does that mean? Which bees do we need to save? And how can we do that ? We explore these questions and more with Dr. James Hung a pollination biologist and bee expert from the Oklahoma Biological Survey.

Conservation often brings to mind protecting particular species, but we also need to protect the species they depend on to survive. In this episode, we talk with two biologists who are working to protect bears, martens, other mammals, and their habitats by studying the microbes that live in their gut.

There are trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms living in your intestines and other places, but don't be alarmed. These microbes form your microbiome and they are supposed to be there. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Erin McKinney and Dr. Diana Lafferty about what the gut microbiome is, how it varies among animals, and what we can learn about an animal's ecology and the environment they live in by using metagenomics to study the gut microbiome.

Some researchers may not have the most glamorous samples to study, but the information scientists can gather from them can be extremely useful in detecting and monitoring diseases in large populations in a non-invasive manner. In this episode, we chat with Dr. Kara De León and Dr. Amy Kirby to learn about the samples they study, how they study them, and what they can tell us about diseases.

Metagenomics is an approach that is opening new frontiers for biological researchers. This episode is part two of an interview with Dr. Andrew Hasley. In this episode he expands on his description of metagenomics from the previous episode and explains how samples are collected, prepared, sequenced, and the resulting data analyzed.

Metagenomics is a new approach being used to sample environmental DNA to better understand populations and communities of organisms, especially bacterial microbiomes. But what is metagenonimcs, how is it different from other genomic analyses, and how is it done? In part one of a two part episode we interview Dr. Andrew Hasley to learn what metagenomics is and the kind of research questions it can investigate. This episode also welcomes co-host Sarah Sanders to the BioTA podcast.

Where did domesticated dogs come from? In 1959, Dr. Dimitry Belyaev began an experiment to answer that question. Although the experiment was illegal in the U.S.S.R. and could have cost him his life, through hard work and a little luck, he not only conducted the experiment, but he also began unlocking some of the mysteries of dog and animal domestication. In this episode we explore the famous Farm Fox experiment, its risks, its controversies, and what we have learned from this research.

Many holiday traditions trace their origins to ancient beliefs and rituals that indicate awareness of the importance of the sun and seasonal changes. In this BioTA episode we explore why we have these botanical traditions. Why do we deck the halls and why is holly a preferred plant for that task? In this episode we explore the botanical symbols in celebrations at the winter solstice. 

Chocolate is one of the most popular food items in the world. How did cacao, the main ingredient in chocolate, go from small tropical tree to the foundation of a multi-billion dollar industry? How will changing climate affect cacao's future? To answer these questions, I am joined by gourmet chocolatier Robert Bowden, President of Vivere Chocolates, to talk about the past, present, and future of chocolate.

In Part 2 of my interview with Senior Climatologist Gary McManus, he discusses how we don't have to wait to see evidence of climate change in Oklahoma and the rest of the world, because "It's already here!" He also explains why the patterns of changes in extreme weather events that have been observed by the Oklahoma Mesonet (mesonet.org) are a serious concern when thinking about the consequences of climate change.

The Oklahoma Mesonet (www.mesonet.org) is a state of the art weather monitoring system that provides unparalleled information about the dynamic Oklahoma atmosphere and mesoscale meteorological events . In this episode, Senior Climatologist Gary McManus describes how the mesonet operates and how it is used to monitor and forecast Oklahoma weather.

During the spring and summer of 2021, the periodical cicadas in Brood X emerged from the soil where they had been living for the past 17 years. Once they came to the surface, all they wanted was to eat and reproduce. In this Missing Links Episode, the fascinating life cycle of the periodical cicadas in Brood X of the genus Magicicada is used as an example of the cohort concept and to demonstrate demographic models.

In this one year anniversary episode we revisit the SARS-Cov-2 virus and talk with Dr. Carlos Goller, a biotechnology specialist from North Carolina State University, about where we are at in the pandemic, how the vaccines to fight this virus work, and what is going on with these variants.

Medicinal cannabis legalization has introduced a new player in the agricultural industry of many states. But how is medicinal cannabis grown on a large scale? in this episode I interview one of the owners of Smokey Okies Cannabis to learn about how this is done and career options for botanists and others in this growing industry.

This episode continues the story of Nikolai Vavilov and his efforts to protect plant diversity and the field of genetics against Josef Stalin and the pseudoscientist Trofim Lysenko. Hear how Vavilov's bravery led to tremendous acts of heroism during the siege of Leningrad, and, ultimately, his recognition as one of the greatest biological thinkers of the 20th Century.

Nikolai Vavilov was one of the greatest botanists, geneticists, and plant hunters of the 20th Century. Despite making incredible discoveries, his story is not widely known. In this episode, we follow Vavilov as he travels the globe searching for unique local varieties of crops to add to his seed bank collections and improve agriculture for all people.

In this final episode of the Cooper Bison Skull and Pleistocene series, Dr. Bement concludes his interview by taking us into the field with him on the day he uncovered the painted skull and what it's like to discover such an important artifact. He also explains why he thinks the skull still has some power in it.

This episode continues my interview with Dr. Leland Bement. He picks up where the previous episode ended by explaining how archaeologists determined the migration behaviors of the ancient bison at the Cooper Bison Kill Site. He also describes other aspects of bison hunting and life of the Folsom people that were learned from studying the Cooper site.

In 1994, archaeologists were investigating an ancient arroyo that contained evidence of three, separate, large bison kills by Folsom culture hunters. In the middle kill, they found a painted bison skull. It's the oldest painted artifact ever discovered in North America. In this episode, Dr. Leland Bement tells what his research indicates about this hunting technique and the possible significance of the Cooper Bison Skull in the hunt.

There is no single botanical definition of what makes a plant a tree, but there are certain features that we use to identify trees. This episode explains what a long-lived, woody perennial is and highlights some of the records setting trees on Earth.

The Pleistocene is known for the large mammals that lived during the "Ice Age" and the mass extinction of the mammalian megafauna that occurred as it ended. In this episode, I talk with Tom Luczycki and Dr. Hayley Lanier from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History to learn about the Pleistocene megafauna of Oklahoma and the probable causes and consequences of their extinction .

With a tree diagram and the simple phrase "I think" written next to it, Charles Darwin gave us a new way to look at evolution. This episode explains the basic principles and processes of reading phylogenetic trees called tree thinking. Dedicated to Dr. V. Funk, the greatest cladist.

This episode commemorates Darwin Day 2021 by looking at his contributions to evolutionary biology from the perspective of an old mystery and a new one.

Systems are an important biological concept for understanding the world around us. In this Missing Links Episode, I explain what systems are, how systems are described with models, and how systems have emergent properties.

This episode runs down the top five science stories that caught my attention in 2020. This is a new shorter episode format called Missing Links. We hope you enjoy!

One of the things that you hear a lot lately is that things are unprecedented. To evaluate whether that is true or not, we need to compare the present to what has happened in the past. In this episode, we look at the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and what we can learn from it to determine what is and perhaps what isn't unprecedented with COVID-19.

The Halloween that many people think of with candy and trick-or-treating is dramatically different from the ancient traditions of Samhain. This episode of BioTA explores the origins of Halloween and its botanical iconography. So, pull up a seat, get a little closer to the fire, and bundle up against the October wind as we celebrate Halloween on Biota.

Ticks are not just parasites that like to attach to animals for a blood meal, they can also be incredibly important vectors for spreading viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens to their hosts. In this episode, I interview Dr. Heather Ketchum, a medical, veterinary, forensic entomologist to learn what ticks do, how they transmit diseases, and what you can learn from a maggot. [note: Like many things now, this interview was conducted via video conference, so please excuse a few sound glitches.]

This episode turns back the clock to look at how scientists use models and systems-based thinking to study diseases and pandemics ranging from the Soho cholera outbreak of 1854 to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

This episode explores mutation, compare two types of selection, and looks at the differences between evolution and herd immunity. By exploring these topics, we can not only understand the source of the different traits we see in species, lineages, and populations, but also how different organisms ranging from dogs to viruses change in response to their environment. How they adapt. How they evolve.

In late 2019, reports came out of Wuhan, China that there was an outbreak of a new respiratory disease that was spreading rapidly and having serious, often lethal consequences for some of its victims. Scientists identified the virus causing the disease as a new strain of coronavirus, a large group of viruses that contains at least eight viruses known to affect humans. In this episode, we explore three basic questions. Is the coronavirus alive? Where did it come from? And will it go away?