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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Links for this episode

• Current Biology Birds Special Issue
• Scott Edwards bikes across the US (Audubon)
• Support Diversity Issues in Evolution (Go Fund Me)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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

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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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Links for this episode

• Human TKTL1 implies greater neurogenesis (Science)
• Everyone’s a little bit Neanderthal (TWiEVO 8)
• Tragic gene flow from Neanderthals (TWiV 676)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Unusual display of elements
Vincent – Sykdomspulsen and summary

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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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Links for this episode

• Gene duplication leads to novel cell type (Current Biol)
• Evolution of multicellularity (TWiEVO 11)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 81
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Dall-E artificial intelligence meets art
Vincent – John Bonner’s slime mold movies

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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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Links for this episode

• Within-host diversity of influenza virus H5N1 (PLoS Path)
• Mumps virus outbreak in Washington (eLive)
• SARS-CoV-2 tight transmission bottlenecks (PLoS Path)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – JWST Images
Vincent – 3rd International Symposium on Infectious Diseases of Bats and Program

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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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Links for this episode

• SARS-CoV-2 evolution during chronic infection (Nat Med)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 79
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

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

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Nels and Vincent provide an update on cases of monkeypox, and summarize a biochemical view of three changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that may balance positive and negative selection.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Links for this episode

• ECDC monkeypox risk assessment (pdf)
• Monkeypox virus genomes (Nextstrain)
• Discussion of monkeypox virus genome sequencing (virological.org)
• Balancing positive and negative selection in spike protein (Biochem)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Science on the Side podcast by Morgan Nelson and Ty Chiaro 
Vincent – Richard Ernst Lecture 2022

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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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Links for this episode

• Somatic mutation and age (Nature)
• Zombie gene in elephants (TWiEVO 26)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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

Listener Pick

Martha – Plagues Upon the Earth by Kyle Harper

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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

Click arrow to play
Download TWiEVO 75  (103 MB .mp3, 86 min)
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Links for this episode

• Making E. coli an insect mutualist (bioRxiv)
• Letters read on TWiEVo 76
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Inequality in science and the case for a new agenda
Vincent – Foundations of Virology by Fred Murphy

Listener Pick

Sam – Saturday Morning Breakfast – Evolutionist

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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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Links for this episode

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

Science Picks

Nels – Erich Jarvis on scientists and public engagement
Vincent – Polio type 1 in Africa

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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

• On Racism, Not Race (Amazon)
• African Americans in evolutionary science (Behav Ecol Sociobiol)
• Biological variation and the normal (Am J Hum Biol)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Where is Webb?
Vincent – Black Microbiologists Association
Joe – Biology versus bias

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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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Links for this episode

• Two-step fitness selection for SARS-CoV-2 variants (Cell Rep)
• Host origins of SARS-CoV-2 genome insertions (Virological)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Ancient coronavirus epidemic in East Asia (Curr Biol)
• Gene-culture coevolution and human evolutionary transition (Proc Roy Soc B)
• Membrane permeability at the lipid divide (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• SARS-CoV-2 mutation rate (Genome Biology Evolution)
• Delta spike change enhances fitness (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Leading Edge Symposium
Vincent – Epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2

Listener Pick

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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Links for this episode

• On Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Identification of novel bat coronaviruses (Cell)
• Dating first cases of COVID-19 (PLoS Path)
• Recovery of deleted SARS-CoV-2 sequences (bioRxiv)
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Evolutionary portrait of SARS-CoV-2 (Mol Biol Evolution)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 68
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Recombination in B.1.1.7 lineage (Virological)
• CoVariants
• Letters read on TWiEVO 67
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Tony Schountz on TWiV 668
• SARS-CoV-2 variants infect mice (bioRxiv)
• CoVariants
• Letters read on TWiEVO 66
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Selective sweep drove SARS-CoV-2 adaptation (bioRxiv)
• Novel coronavirus haplotypes
• Letters read on TWiEVO 65
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

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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Links for this episode

• Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (Nature)
• mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies to variants (bioRxiv)
• Scott Hensley thread (Twitter)
• Analysis of B.1.17 lineage (virological)
• Trevor Bedford thread (Twitter)
• Andrew Rambaut on variant naming (Twitter)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 64
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Biden Administration PCAST and The Hill We Climb
Vincent – Four inaugural quotations – Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Biden

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Daniel joins Nels and Vincent to discuss his new book on army ants, the wickedest insects ever to roam the planet, and his research on them and clonal raider ants.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guest: Daniel Kronauer

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Links for this episode

• This Week in Ants (TWiEVO 13)
• Raiders of the Lost Orco (TWiEVO 18)
• Army Ants by Daniel Kronauer
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Daniel – Desert Navigator by Rüdiger Wehner and Insects of Suriname by Maria Sibylla Merian
Nels – NPR Scicommers
Vincent – The Vintage Beauty Of Soviet Control Rooms

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Nels and Vincent discuss an opinion piece on 12 evolutionary insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping human nature, and prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in an immunosuppressed patient.

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Links for this episode

• Microbe.TV on instagram
• Pandemic exposes human nature (PNAS)
• Carl Bergstrom calls BS (Twitter)
• Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 reproduction in patient (J Inf Dis)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 61
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels – Scott Edwards bikes across US; support diversity in evolution
Vincent – 30 computers sculpture project

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On the fifth anniversary of TWiEVO, Nels and Vincent invite 12 evolutionary biologists to describe exciting future directions for the field and their laboratory in the next five years.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

Guests: Lillian Fritz Laylin, Talia Karasov, Andrew Kern, Sarah Tishkoff, Dmitri Petrov, Nancy Chen, Amanda Larracuente, John McCutcheon, Ambika Kamath, Chip Aquadro, Rebekah Rogers, Yaniv Braindvain, and Harmit Malik

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Science Picks

Nels - Science Mill Virtual Tour and Benefit
Vincent - Das Coronavirus summaries

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Nels and Vincent answer listener questions and discuss a newly discovered virus of amoeba with a nearly complete ORFan genome: none of the proteins encoded in the viral genome look like any other proteins.

Hosts: Nels Elde and Vincent Racaniello

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Links for this episode

• Yaravirus (PNAS)
• Letters read on TWiEVO 59
• Time stamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Science Picks

Nels - Blog by Ambika Kamath
Vincent - TWiVerse

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