Last time we talked about transcription and translation; but that’s not all that cells do with genes. If you think about all the different cell types in the body, from your brain cells to your muscles, you realize that these cells must be diffe

Lecture 7b: From Genes to Proteins (Pt. 2)

Mar 18th, 2017 41m 48s

This is the second episode in our two part series on transcription and translation, that is, how cells produce the proteins they use. Last time we talked about transcription, so we’ve already covered how we use cellular machinery to create edit

Lecture 7a: From Genes to Proteins

Mar 14th, 2017 39m 9s

Today we're going to be talking about the nucleus, and what happens there. We’re talking about how cells use their DNA to produce mRNA that will be translated into proteins. This episode takes us through a short history of genetic thought, tran

Lecture 6: A Tour of the Cell

Feb 24th, 2017 59m 29s

Today we’re going to have a pretty long episode. I’m going to take you on a nice leisurely tour of the cell. You’ll learn all about the structures that make up cells, what they do, and how they interact. All organisms are made of cells, so we s

Lecture 5: Proteins, Enzymes, and DNA

Feb 17th, 2017 29m 56s

I told you at the start of the semester that we’d be learning about general biology this semester, but here we are at the fifth episode and all we’ve talked about so far is a chemistry! Well today we’re finally getting into the biology. Today w

Lecture 4: Functional Chemistry

Feb 9th, 2017 40m 30s

Today we’re going to finish up talking about carbon and start in on the properties of biological molecules. I know it can seem like I’m dragging on about chemistry and not getting to the biology here, but there are some subtleties in this episo

Lecture 3: Living Chemistry

Jan 30th, 2017 36m 43s

This week we're talking more explicitly about the basic chemical processes that life relies on including water, acids and bases, and a few more. This will lead directly into the next two lectures which center around how we build the molecules o

Lecture 2: More introduction

Jan 23rd, 2017 44m 48s

Hey all, welcome back! Today we're going to be finishing up the introduction to biology by thinking about what science is as a concept, we'll go through some themes that permeate biological science, and we'll end with a description of a field e

Welcome and Intro to Biology

Jan 20th, 2017 24m 58s

Welcome back to the Full Semester Podcast for Spring 2017. This semester we'll be starting a two-semester series about General College Biology (What many universities call Bio 101). We'll use this knowledge as a platform for future seasons, so

Lecture 8: Species Concepts And Speciation

Dec 19th, 2016 27m 51s

Hey all, this is going to be the last episode before christmas since I wasn't able to bring my recording stuff with me on vacation.The episode is a very cursory overview of species concepts and of speciation. Have you ever considered what we

Lecture 7: Kin Selection

Dec 3rd, 2016 42m 38s

Today we’re going to continue our discussion of the different types of selection by talking about Kin selection. If you’ve been following along with the episodes so far, you’ve probably noticed that there’s a big hole in our logic about selecti

Paper 4: Hopi Hoekstra Melanic Mice

Nov 15th, 2016 31m 32s

Today we're talking about Hopi Hoekstra's 2004 Evolution paper titled "Ecological Genetics of Adaptive Color Polymorphism in Pocket Mice: Geographic Variation in Selected and Neutral Genes". We'll talk about how the concept of Fst is useful in

Lecture 6: Sexual Selection

Nov 4th, 2016 39m 29s

Today we're talking about sexual selection. A word to the wise, I definitely use the words penis and sex in this podcast, and I talk with candor about sexuality in the animal kingdom. If you have sensitive ears around when you listen to this, m

Lecture 5: Bring on the math

Oct 22nd, 2016 33m 58s

Today is going to be a long one because of math explanations, it should probably also be one where you have a piece of paper that you can write things on, because of the math. I'll be reading the equations etc. slowly so that you can write them

Lecture 4: The Four Fources

Oct 14th, 2016 31m 54s

Today I'm finally going actually expand on something that I've been referencing for the past couple of episodes, today we're going to talk about the four forces that affect evolution. We've already talked a lot about Natural Selection, but toda

Paper 3: Locust Biogeography

Oct 11th, 2016 24m 19s

Today we're talking about Lovejoy et. al. 2006 paper about Locusts called "Ancient Trans-Atlantic Flight Explains Locust Biogeography". The big question they were investigating was which one of two competing hypotheses for the global dispersal

Lecture 3: Phylogenetics

Oct 4th, 2016 23m 30s

This is the third lecture podcast for the semester. Today we're going to talk a bit about phylogenetics, and what we mean when we say that things are related. I'm going to give you a fair warning here though, this is a very visual subject and I

Paper 2: "Unpredictable Evolution"

Oct 3rd, 2016 20m 10s

This is the second scientific article we're reading this semester, and it's a paper by Grant and Grant from 2002 called "Unpredictable Evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin's Finches". It's a very interesting paper that points us to some very

Full Semester Evolution Lecture 2: Natural Selection

Sep 20th, 2016 25m 41s

Today we're going to dive deep on natural selection, which is one of the major drivers of evolution! We'll go over the observations that led classical scientists to Natural selection theory, how those observations lead to inferences about the n

Paper 1: "Evolution and Tinkering"

Sep 12th, 2016 23m 6s

This article is Franscois Jacob's 1977 article in the journal science titled "evolution and tinkering". In this article we explore a really foundational concept in Evolution, that of constraint. The author highlights the fact that constraint is

Full Semester Evolution: Lecture 1

Sep 6th, 2016 25m 4s

This is the first full lecture in the series, and in it we go over some history, some pivotal players, the scientific definition of the word theory, and some evidence for evolution.Arm Bone Homology Search: https://www.google.com/#safe=active

Full Semester Evolution 001

Sep 4th, 2016 8m 10s

This is the first episode of the Full Semester Podcast. In this very short episode I introduce myself, the concept, and this semester's topic: Evolution! Join me this semester for lecture podcasts, article discussions, and occasional shenanigan

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