Episode 79
The Human Eye
Evolution by natural selection can build complex features through small, incremental changes. But can it build an eye? Evolution Talk is also a book!...
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Explore 159 episodes covering the who, what, why, and how of evolution
Episode 78
Denisovans
Caves hide many things. Be it shards of glass, arrowheads… or bones. It’s to whom these bones might have belonged to which often leads us on a path ...
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Survival of the Fittest Part 2 (with Stephanie Keep)
Consider this a ‘lost episode’ of Evolution Talk. In it I talk with Stephanie Keep of BiteScis.org about the origins and misconceptions around the te...
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Mary Anning
In 1811 , or 1812, a young girl by the name of Mary Anning, along with her little brother, happened upon an incredible find while digging around the c...
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Rosalind Franklin
It’s safe to say, and very few would disagree, that without Rosalind Franklin the double helix structure would not have been discovered when it was, n...
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An Interview With Emma Darwin
In an earlier episode I stepped into a time machine and traveled back to 1869 in order to interview Charles Darwin. This time around I brought someone...
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Convergent Evolution
Convergent evolution has shown us that nature will find similar solutions under similar conditions. So too might it be on other planets. Life might no...
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Cladistics
A cladogram will show those animals that share similar form and structures. It’s not about animals which have evolved from one another. In this episod...
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An Interview With Jonathan Tweet
Jonathan Tweet has authored a very remarkable book for children. He wasn’t just trying to make evolution and its concepts easier to understand for kid...
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Are We Still Evolving?
There are some who say that evolution by natural selection, at least when it applies to you and I, is no longer a driving force. The argument is that ...
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Your Brain
Over the course of billions of years a small region of specialized cells began to develop sensory organs. These light sensitive cells slowly developed...
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Homo Naledi
In 2013 a secret that had been hidden for hundreds of thousands of years in a South African cave was discovered. Bones… many bones. Upon inspection by...
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The Evolution of Music
In this episode of Evolution Talk we take a look at some of the theories which have attempted to trace the evolution of music, from Charles Darwin to ...
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Math and Maupertuis
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis was fascinated with the origin and evolution of life. If there was a creator, finding the keys to his work had to in...
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Coevolution
Coevolution often involves an arms race. You have a predator and prey both upping the game. Like a bat and a moth. Each one trying to outdo the other....
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Why Water?
Without water there would be no life. We are lucky. Extremely lucky that it is here at all. Especially in its liquid form. It doesn’t need to be. In f...
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Misconceptions About Evolution & Natural Selection
In this episode of ‘Evolution Talk’ I am joined by a very special guest – Stephanie Keep from the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Among ...
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An Explosion of Cambrian Proportions
In the era known as the Cambrian, an era which kicked off 541 million years ago, life exploded. Natural Selection began to produce new creatures, one ...
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An Appendix
For years the appendix has been considered a vestigial organ. In 2007 researchers at Duke University began to take another look at the appendix. While...
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Radiation and DNA
What does radiation do to us exactly and why do we care? The American geneticist Hermann Joseph Muller worried about it back in the 1920s. Evolution ...
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