Biopedia16 Heinä 2023

63- Hypothetical Galactic Population Size

On today's episode, we're going to range out into the cosmos for our inaugural episode in the world of astrobiology! We're going to ask the question: how many people could our galaxy support? Using some assumptions and approximations, we're going to see that the number dwarfs our current numbers here on Earth by quite some margin...

Sources for this episode:

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Cowie, R. H., Bouchet, P. and Fontaine, B. (2022): The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation? Biological Reviews 97: 640- 663.
de Almeida, G. (2004), The Milky Way. Chapter in: Navigating the Night Sky. Patrick Moore’s Practical Astronomy Series. London: Springer.
The Editors of Scientific American (2015), Exoplanets: Worlds Without End. New York: Scientific American.
Hodge, P. W. (1981), The Andromeda Galaxy. Scientific American 244(1): 92-101.
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Kurzgesagt- In a Nutshell, YouTube (2022), The Last Human- A Glimpse Into The Far Future (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
Ramakrishna, S. (2021), Circular economy and sustainability pathways to build a new-modern society. Drying Technology 39(6): 711-712.
Ritchie, H., Our World in Data (2023), The UN has made population projections for more than 50 years- how accurate have they been? (online) [Accessed 02/07/2023].
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Stellato, J. (2020), The Milky Way and Lentil Beans. Science Scope 43(6): 44- 49.
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Jaksot(151)

128- Can Dolphins Detect Pregnancy?

Following another request, today we examine whether it is possible for dolphins- using their ultrasonic communication- to detect human pregnancy. The answer might be more ambiguous than you think...So...

2 Elo 4min

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Vince here- I've written a historical fiction book set in Constantinople in 1081! Well, kind of. The first draft of the manuscript is complete at about 59,000 words across 34 chapters. I am planning t...

31 Heinä 5min

127- Life Expectancy of Hobbits

A bit of a silly topic today. What is the average life expectancy of hobbits in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium? Along the way, we will learn something about current and historic human life expectancy....

19 Heinä 3min

126- Moles

As requested by listener GT, we are going to talk all about moles today! Join us for the evolutionary history of the Talpidae family, English prophecies about moles, how much a mole head is worth in 2...

5 Heinä 10min

125- Pollinator Decline Debate Part II: A Dissenting Voice

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10 Touko 3min

124- Pollinator Decline Debate Part I: Non-Bee Pollinators

Once again adapting a blog post into an episode, we are going to be examining a paper from 2016 which gives a potential new perspective on bee/pollinator declines. It argues that the contribution of n...

26 Huhti 2min

123- Calculating Inbreeding Coefficient

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12 Huhti 8min

122- How to Build a Phylogenetic Tree

The term phylogenetic tree often gets bandied about, but how exactly do you construct one? Using three exemplar snake species and the differences in amino acid sequences in a common protein, let's bui...

29 Maalis 4min