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This Week in Evolution

This Week in Evolution is a podcast on the biology behind what makes us tick.
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Now displaying: Category: life sciences
Feb 27, 2024

Nels and Vincent discuss how behavioural individuality determines infection risk in clonal ant colonies.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels – Fungi (lichens) in Space
Vincent – Polar bear energetic and behavioral strategies on land with implications for surviving the ice-free period

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Feb 27, 2024

Nels and Vincent review a study of the key processes required for the different stages of fungal carnivory by a nematode-trapping fungus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels – Openly available illustrations as tools to describe eukaryotic microbial diversity
Vincent – Dana-Farber retractions: meet the blogger who spotted problems in dozens of cancer papers

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Dec 26, 2023

Nels and Vincent discuss the origins of two modern day agriculturally important plants: a role for two different wild teosintes in making modern maize, and the origin and evolution of the triploid cultivated banana genome.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels – Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art – Nature Careers Podcast
Vincent – Science’s 2023 Breakthrough and Breakdown

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Nov 14, 2023

Nels and Vincent discuss how the rewetting of seasonally dried soils, a critical event in Mediterranean grasslands that reactivates dormant soil microorganisms, leading to pulses of carbon and nitrogen mineralization, and is accompanied by a bloom of viral diversity, followed by extensive viral community turnover.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - Bluesky
Vincent - Cancer Virus Hunters: A History of Tumor Virology

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Sep 29, 2023

Nels and Vincent take apart an amazing symbiosis consisting of two bacteria, one bacteriophage, and seven different genomes all within a single-celled alga.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•A single crowded cryptomonad cell (Curr Biol)
Letters read on TWiEVO 94

Science Picks

Nels – What happened at NIH during the last government shutdown
Vincent – Geneticist J. Craig Venter: ‘I consider retirement tantamount to death’

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Aug 25, 2023

Nels and Vincent review a collision of synthetic biology and experimental evolution, using a minimal synthetic bacterial cell with only 473 genes, the smallest genome of any known organism that can be grown in lab culture.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Evolution of a minimal cell (Nature)

Science Picks

Nels – Life magnified stamp collection

Vincent – Matters Microbial

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Jul 21, 2023

Nels and Vincent explain a study of how interspecies competition between two algae influences evolution of metabolism and size.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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• Metabolic evolution during competition (Curr Biol)

Science Picks

Nels – How amino acids got their names (Source)

Vincent – EVs Fix One Pollution Problem—And Worsen Another

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Jul 17, 2023

Nels and Vincent discuss new findings using phylogenetic approaches about how complex eukaryotic cells emerged from prokaryotic ancestors, which firmly place eukaryotes as a clade nested within the Asgard archaea.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent RacanielloS

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
•Heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes (Nature)

Science Picks

Nels – Juneteenth issue of Cell – collection of essays from black and brown scientists

Vincent – Tara Oceans

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May 12, 2023

Nels and Vincent provide insights into the mystery of mouse mummies on the summits of >6000 m Andean volcanoes, including whether they were living there and if so why?

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
•Mystery of mouse mummies (bioRxiv)

Science Picks

NelsZoonomia
VincentSeaPhages

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Apr 25, 2023

Nels and Vincent discuss the observation that cells on a boundary of a solid tumor have higher growth rates compared to those in the center and how to model this difference using genome sequencing data.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
•Evolutionary models of solid tumor growth (Nat Ecol Evol)

Science Picks

NelsTWiV 1000
Vincent The dream of wiping out polio might need a rethink

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Mar 26, 2023

Nels and Vincent review a study of the dogs of Chernobyl which reveals that genetically distinct populations with different amounts of western breed contributions to their genomes, the first step in assessing the effects of exposure to long-term ionizing radiation.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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The dogs of Chernobyl (Science Adv)
•What the dogs of Chernobyl can teach us (Stat)
Letters read on TWiEVO 88

Science Picks

Nels – Hellbent documentary and Insufficient evidence for natural selection associated with the Black Death
Vincent – BioRender

Listener Pick

Walter – Oded Rechavi and interview

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Feb 21, 2023

Nathan joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his approach to understanding how species adopt novel traits to overcome challenges, and its application to identifying coding and noncoding sequence changes that underlie mammalian hairlessness.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Nathan Clark

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•Gene loss in marine mammals (TWiEVO 34)
•Gene change underlying mammalian hair loss (eLife)
Letters read on TWiEVO 87

Science Picks

Nels – Local news coverage of Amanda, Maria, and Nathan’s paper
Vincent – Discovering Retroviruses by Anna Marie Skalka
Nathan – Genomics of Secondarily Temperate Adaptation in the Only Non-Antarctic Icefish

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Feb 5, 2023

Nels and Vincent discuss how evolution of changes in stop codon assignment might occur, and a novel mechanism for altering the meaning of translation stop codons discovered in a trypanosomatid with the apropos name, Blastocrithidia nonstop.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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•Join the MicrobeTV Discord server
•Novel stop codon reassignment mechanisms (Nature)

Science Picks

NelsProtein Synthesis: An epic on the cellular level 

VincentWidespread stop-codon recoding in bacteriophages may regulate translation of lytic genes discussed on TWiM 277

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Dec 21, 2022

Nels and Vincent discuss the use of genome sequence data for over 4,000 domestic, semi-feral, and wild canids to understand the genetic drivers of canine behavior.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels – Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Vincent – The Biggest Ideas in the Universe by Sean Carroll

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Nov 8, 2022

Nels and Vincent review the use of ancient DNA to identify loci that may have been under selection during the Black Death by studying populations before, during, and after the pandemic.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels Interview with Paul Turner in Current Biology and Map of the World if you are a fish
VincentSmallpox and its eradication

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Oct 24, 2022

Florian Maderspacher from Current Biology joins Nels and Vincent to discuss a special issue of the journal on birds.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Florian Maderspacher

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Science Picks

Florian – Favorite birds of authors/contributors in Birds issue
NelsLoss of avian intromittent organs as a sperm competition strategy: a race to be last
Vincent – Malaria at the Bronx Zoo (TWiP 110)

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Sep 25, 2022

Nels and Vincent consider evidence that a single amino acid change in the TKTL1 gene might have led to greater neurogenesis in the frontal cortex of modern humans compared with Neanderthals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

NelsUnusual display of elements
VincentSykdomspulsen and summary

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Aug 24, 2022

Nels and Vincent discuss how duplication of a gene encoding a transcription factor led to evolution of a novel cell type in the slime mold Dictyostelium.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels Dall-E artificial intelligence meets art
VincentJohn Bonner’s slime mold movies

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Aug 1, 2022

Louise Moncla joins Nels and Vincent to review her use of genomics to understand emergence, evolution, and transmission of respiratory viruses including influenza virus H5N1, mumps virus, and SARS-CoV-2.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Louise Moncla

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Science Picks

NelsJWST Images
Vincent3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats and Program

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Jul 2, 2022

Nels and Vincent discuss an analysis of the drivers of evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during chronic infections, indicating that a tradeoff exists between antibody evasion and fitness.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiEVO 79  (103 MB .mp3, 86 min)
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Science Picks

Nels NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears
Vincent FDA: Don’t rush a move to change the Covid-19 vaccine composition

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Apr 26, 2022

Alex joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his work which demonstrates that somatic mutation rates scale with lifespan in mammals.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Alex Cagan

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Science Picks

Alex Paper.app
NelsFifty years since Lewontin’s apportionment of human diversity
Vincent An Exceptional Village

Listener Pick

MarthaPlagues Upon the Earth by Kyle Harper

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Mar 22, 2022

Nels and Vincent describe how a single amino acid change can allow E. coli to replace the essential gut symbiont of the stinkbug Plautia stali.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiEVO 75  (103 MB .mp3, 86 min)
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Science Picks

NelsInequality in science and the case for a new agenda
VincentFoundations of Virology by Fred Murphy

Listener Pick

SamSaturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Feb 24, 2022

Nels and Vincent review isolation of SARS-CoV-2-like viruses from bats in Laos that can replicate in human cells.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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  • SARS-CoV-2 like viruses in bats in Laos (Nature)
  • Vampire vax (TWiV 809)
  • Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

NelsErich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement
Vincent Polio type 1 in Africa

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Feb 3, 2022
Joe Graves joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his career in evolutionary biology and his recent book that answers questions about race and racism.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Joe Graves

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Links for this episode

Science Picks

NelsWhere is Webb?
VincentBlack Microbiologists Association
JoeBiology versus bias

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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Feb 26, 2020

Nels and Vincent examine SARS-CoV-2 from an evolutionary viewpoint, examining what the spike glycoprotein sequence informs us about the origin of the virus.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Science Picks

Nels - Alejandro Sanchez TED Talk
Vincent - WHO SARS-CoV-2 Sitrep

Music on TWiEVO is performed by Trampled by Turtles

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