Nels and Vincent review three aspects of SARS-CoV-2: phylogenetics of Omicron, a two-step fitness selection for variants, and putative RNA insertions from host genomes.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Plant virus satellite accelerates wing formation in insect
Vincent – A plant virus that switched to vertebrates
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Nels and Vincent discuss evolutionary evidence for an epidemic of coronavirus infection over 20,000 years ago in East Asia, and reconstruction of the membrane differences between bacteria and Archaea reveals unexpected differences in permeability.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Slowed canonical progress in large fields of science
Vincent – Virology Live
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Nels and Vincent explain a method to calculate the mutation rate of SARS-CoV-2, and the role of a single amino acid change in spike in enhancing fitness of the delta variant and enabling it to out-compete the alpha variant.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Leading Edge Symposium
Vincent – Epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2
Thomas – The gene’s-eye view of evolution by J. Arvid Ågren
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Carl Zimmer joins Nels to talk about science writing, science communication, viruses, and his new book, On Life’s Edge.
Host: Nels Elde
Guest: Carl Zimmer
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Nels – Remembrance of Dick Lewontin
Carl – From telomere to telomere: the transcriptional and epigenetic state of human repeat elements
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Nels and Vincent discuss the identification of novel bat coronaviruses that shed light on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, dating the first cases of COVID-19 to mid-November 2019, and recovery of deleted genome sequences from early in the Wuhan outbreak.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – The Last—And Only—Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out
Vincent – Human Behavior During the Pandemic Is More Important Than Any Covid Variant
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Nels and Vincent explain a new method for calculating the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, which concludes that the ancestral virus was circulating in October/November 2019, before its first detection in China.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Ed Yong pandemic trauma and We’re Not Ready for the Next Pandemic
Vincent – Furin cleavage site is not a smoking gun
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Nels and Vincent review evidence for recombinant SARS-CoV-2 genomes arising in the B.1.1.7 lineage within the United Kingdom.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Mars rover helicopter flight!
Vincent – TWiN 17: Worms see the light with Michael Nitabach
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Nels and Vincent review a preprint demonstrating that changes in the genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 variants B1.351 and P.1 allow the viruses to reproduce in mouse cells in culture and in laboratory mice.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Billion years of plate tectonics
Vincent – Sapiens a Graphic History by Yuval Noah Harari
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Nels and Vincent review evidence that a single amino acid change in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has driven adaptation to humans, followed by an update on the status of variants of concern.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Radio Garden
Vincent – Our World in Data – Coronavirus
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Nels and Vincent consider evolution of antibody immunity to SARS-CoV-2, and update the situation on novel virus variants of concern with potentially altered fitness and reactivity with antibodies.
Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello
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Nels – Biden Administration PCAST and The Hill We Climb
Vincent – Four inaugural quotations – Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Biden
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